Changing Unix group for files

Question

I have a file that a colleague and I are editing together, on a Unix system. We are using Unix group permissions to edit it. We have one Unix group that we are both members of. Whenever I save the file, it changes the Unix group to one that he is not a member of. Is there any way to stop it from doing that?

Answer 1

Your options are to set the setgid bit (chmod g+s) on the directory to make files created within it match its group ID, or to use the newgrp command to open a shell with the desired group ID before editing the file.

Answer 2

One option is to switch group using the command newgrp. It may ask for the group password that you may set with gpasswd.

Answer 3

Uno. change your default login group number to be the same between the two people

username:x:500:514::/home/username:/bin/tcsh
# Where 514 is the group id.

Duo: create a new user id , with a password only known by the two people involved. chown the file to be owned by the new userid. Before editing the file in question, suto the new userid.

Trio:.

cp $EDITOR to $HOME; \# in this example pico
chmod g+s $HOME/pico;
chgrp RELEVANTGROUP $HOME/pico;

Quattro:

sudo chgrp RELEVANTGROUP some/path/to/file \# may require root

Cinco: Create a few Google account and edit the thing SIMULTANEOUSLY in Google docs. (it is neat to watch where the other person is typing). Make a point of changing the sharing perms in Google Docs for "anyone with the link"

Hexo: Split the file in two and have each editor only work on half.

Answer 4

Take a look at umask on your system.

Answer 5

Here is a good article about Sticky-Bit and other advanced permission settings: http://www.cs-repository.info/p/tutorial.html