Resetting user permissions to their default mode

permission

I'm on Mac OS X 10.7.2 with a serious permissions issue that affects most items in my Documents folder, which now require my password for modifications like renaming. The concerned files and folders also seem hidden from Spotlight and therefore do not show up in searches. Both issues are seriously problematic for everyday use.

This is what ls -l gives me for folders:

drwxr-xr-x  109 fr  staff  3706 Nov 22 14:43 Notes
drwxr-xr-x+  16 fr  staff   544 Nov 22 14:51 Bibliography

While the Notes folder is showing fine in searches and allows for password-free renaming, the Bibliography folder does not. My understanding is that the + sign indicates what is wrong here.

Edit: tentative solution below, by removing all ACLs.

Best Answer

Here's the tentative solution I have found to my own problem:

  • print initial state: ls -l
  • remove ACL permissions: chmod -R -N /Users/fr/
  • equalize all permissions: chmod -R 755 /Users/fr/
  • rebuild Spotlight index: sudo mdutil -E /
  • print new state: ls -l

The -N option, which is well hidden in the man chmod documentation but mentioned here, removes the + sign that indicate ACLs, just like @ indicates a hidden file extension or a custom icon (as far as I can tell). Using Repair Utilities on ACLs should have done that but did not.

By using chmod with the 755 mode, I lost all custom permissions in the process, but did not need any. Rebuilding the Spotlight index then guarantees that all files get properly indexed. That solution worked, through without explaining how the initial problem emerged.

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