Found the strangest behaviour in using acl using the d switch:
Test with the d: in the setfacl commando
create directory: mkdir /var/tmp/tester
create three users: useradd userA -d /tmp etc…
remove the other permission of the directory: chmod 750 /var/tmp/tester
grant acl permissions for userA: # file: setfacl -md:u:userA:rwx var/tmp/tester/
grant acl permissions for userB: setfacl -m d:u:userB:rx /var/tmp/tester
grant acl permissions for userC(not really needed): setfacl -m d:u:userC:rwx /var/tmp/tester
list the acl of the directory: getfacl /var/tmp/tester
# owner: root
# group: root
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::---
default:user::rwx
default:user:userA:rwx
default:user:userB:r-x
default:user:userC:---
default:group::r-x
default:mask::rwx
default:other::---
Become userA and navigate to the tester dir: ''su - userA cd /var/tmp''/tester
Result: -bash: cd: /var/tmp/tester: Permission denied
Now same test but not using the d: in my acl setfacl commando
create directory: mkdir /var/tmp/tester
create three users: useradd userA -d /tmp etc…
remove the other permission of the directory: chmod 750 /var/tmp/tester
grant acl permissions for userA: # file: setfacl -m u:userA:rwx var/tmp/tester/
grant acl permissions for userB: setfacl -m u:userB:rx /var/tmp/tester
grant acl permissions for userC(not really needed): setfacl -m u:userC:rwx /var/tmp/tester
list the acl of the directory: getfacl /var/tmp/tester
# owner: root
# group: root
user::rwx
group::r-x
other::---
default:user::rwx
default:user:userA:rwx
default:user:userB:r-x
default:user:userC:---
default:group::r-x
default:mask::rwx
default:other::---
Become userA and navigate to the tester dir: ''su - userA cd /var/tmp''/tester
Result: Success!?
is this expected behaviour? Why does the getfacl does not show any difference in the tests?
d: is short for default: and specifies the default ACLs for a directory, not the real ACLs. From man 5 acl:
OBJECT CREATION AND DEFAULT ACLs
The access ACL of a file object is initialized when the object is created
with any of the creat(), mkdir(), mknod(), mkfifo(), or open() functions.
If a default ACL is associated with a directory, the mode parameter to
the functions creating file objects and the default ACL of the directory
are used to determine the ACL of the new object:
1. The new object inherits the default ACL of the containing directory
as its access ACL.
2. The access ACL entries corresponding to the file permission bits are
modified so that they contain no permissions that are not contained
in the permissions specified by the mode parameter.
So, yes: it's normal that you observe different behavior when (not) using d:.
However note that the output from getfacl you have posted is wrong: in the second case (when not using d:) you should have some lines prefixed with user:userA, user:userB, user:userC instead of the lines prefixed with default:. Here's a simpler example:
$ mkdir a b
$ setfacl -m u:nobody:rx a
$ setfacl -m d:u:nobody:rx b
$ diff -u <(getfacl a) <(getfacl b)
--- /dev/fd/63 2016-03-12 11:10:20.032239216 +0100
+++ /dev/fd/62 2016-03-12 11:10:20.024239117 +0100
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-# file: a
+# file: b
# owner: andrea
# group: andrea
user::rwx
-user:nobody:r-x
group::rwx
-mask::rwx
other::r-x
+default:user::rwx
+default:user:nobody:r-x
+default:group::rwx
+default:mask::rwx
+default:other::r-x