Changing file and folder ownership from root?

Question

I created a folder structure as root and now need to transfer ownership to an ordinary user.

This question is linked to this one - Providing permission to specific user to access NFS share

I have a folder /srv/app-share that needs to be visible/writeable to user1

I tried (as root):

root@server [/]# chown -R user1:user1 /srv/

But that did not work.

Solution

What messages did you get, any errors? Did you try without the last slash in /srv/ so that it specifically indicates the directory itself?

As simple test confirms it works my side, however I did not specify a group:

root@server [/]# chown -R user1: /srv/

Perhaps there is no group called 'user1' in your case? run groups | grep user1 and see if you have that user group.

Comments

[siliconpi]

Interesting - you were right that there is no group as user1, but even using your command, as user1, I'm still not able to see/navigate to /srv

[invert]

what does ls -a /srv/ show you? I get an empty dir . ..

[siliconpi]

It was created by root, and the root can navigate to it. But after chown-ing it, it's not visible for user1 (/srv)

[siliconpi]

umm - just for clarification, it wasnt visible before to user1 either...

[invert]

I think you are trying to set the directory owner on a machine that does not exist on that machine. Why not map the share into user1's /home, so that the share and all files fall under user1 implicitly?