centos add folder full access only to a specific group

Question

In my centos server (amazon ami) with nginx installed i would to guarantee full access 777 (read write execute) at a specific folder only for user in a specific group and deny any type of access to all others. Well, first i create the folder:

sudo mkdir var/www

then i create group:

sudo groupadd lavagrp

add specific user to the group:

sudo usermod -a -G lavagrp ec2-user
sudo usermod -a -G lavagrp nginx

then i add group permission to folder in this maneer:

sudo chgrp lavagrp: 777 var/www 

but system respond: "group not valid lavagrp"

if i check the group with

getent group lavagrp

group exist and system return

lavagrp:x:501:ec2-user,nginx

Someone know how can i garant to my folder var/www full control just for lavagrp users?

thanks in advance

Answer 1

There are a couple of issues with your chgrp command. The ":" character and the 777 parameter are causing the "group not valid lavagrp" error because the chgrp program doesn't understand what these are.

I also wouldn't recommend to set 777 on this folder either. You can achieve the same result using the following commands.

sudo chmod 770 /var/www
sudo chgrp lavagrp /var/www

This means the owner has read, write and execute permissions, the group has read, write and execute permissions and every other user cannot read, write or traverse into that directory.