Ubuntu – How to make new header files available universally

compilingfilespermissions

I just downloaded some new header files and have a folder of them that I wish to make available. First, I would like to make them available to any file wishing to use them. So, I would like to be able to include the new header file (call it newheader.h) where I want, just like math.h, for example. Where should I put it?

Second, I wish to make these files available to all users. I have root permissions. Is there a special directory I need to put it in? Thanks so much!

Best Answer

Store them in /usr/local/include. From http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/usr.html, items in this directory are "... safe from being overwritten when the system software is updated", which is important since you do not want the headers files you have downloaded to get clobbered by system updates, which might happen if you put them in /usr/include.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Change user’s primary group – have new files made in that group

I am guessing the behavior you want is sudo usermod -g groupname myuser .

Note: that command changes the group ownership for all files in $HOME, but not outside home. You may wish to change them back chgrp -R myuser $HOME

You then need to log off and back on for the changes you want to take effect.

If you do not want to change your 'myuser' primary group, newgrp is the way to go.

sudo usermod -g admin bodhi

ssh localhost

touch file

newgrp bodhi
touch file2

ls -l file file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 bodhi admin 0 2012-03-26 19:28 file
-rw-r--r-- 1 bodhi bodhi 0 2012-03-26 19:29 file2

Ubuntu – Default owners/permissions of files in user home directory

NO file in `~` has to be owned by root.

If a software requires that a file in your home directory be owned by another user, it is a bug and should be reported as such.

Other than that, a common case involves two security-related software that require restricted permissions on certain files, namely:

SSH

See man ssh, section FILES:

 ~/.ssh/config
     This is the per-user configuration file.  The file format and
     configuration options are described in ssh_config(5).  Because of
     the potential for abuse, this file must have strict permissions:
     read/write for the user, and not writable by others.  It may be
     group-writable provided that the group in question contains only
     the user.

 ~/.ssh/identity
 ~/.ssh/id_dsa
 ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
     Contains the private key for authentication.  These files contain
     sensitive data and should be readable by the user but not acces‐
     sible by others (read/write/execute).  ssh will simply ignore a
     private key file if it is accessible by others.  It is possible
     to specify a passphrase when generating the key which will be
     used to encrypt the sensitive part of this file using 3DES.

Other files like authorized_keys, known_hosts, etc. should be writable only by the user, but can be world-readable.

GnuPG

~/.gnupg (and contents) should be accessible only by you. With other permissions, GPG will complain about unsafe permissions.