Does SCP have a problem setting file permissions or have I misconfiguration my server?
There is a file on a server that I want to edit called "importantFile.txt". The file has owner and group of "master":
ls -l importantFile.txt:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 master master 7 Mar 18 08:11 importantFile.txt
I am called "slave" but luckily, I am in group "master" so I can edit the file as I see fit. However, I'm a lazy slave and can't be bothered to edit the file on the server, I'd prefer to edit the file on my local machine and SCP it to the server:
echo "bored slave info" > importantFile.txt
scp importantFile.txt slave@theServerAddress:/pathToFile/importantFile.txt
If I do this, the contents of the file on the server are uploaded fine and the timestamp of the file is updated but the permissions of the file don't change, the file is still owned by "master". This is a problem because if "slave" uploaded bad content, no one would know it was "slave" who caused the problem, "master" would look guilty.
Perhaps I have to set a umask? if so where? I tried .bash_profile without success and haven't found anything on Google about umask in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
That's nothing special about scp - try logging on to the server as slave, and editing the file using your favourite text editor... You'll find the same behaviour occurs... Writing to a file does not make you the owner of the file.
Example:
as root
#cd /tmp
#mkdir fubar
#chgrp vboxusers fubar
#cd fubar/
#touch testfile
#chgrp vboxusers testfile
#chmod g+w . testfile
#ls -al
total 16
drwxrwxr-x 2 root vboxusers 4096 2009-03-19 10:30 .
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 12288 2009-03-19 10:29 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root vboxusers 0 2009-03-19 10:30 testfile
#echo foo > testfile
#ls -al
total 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 root vboxusers 4096 2009-03-19 10:30 .
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 12288 2009-03-19 10:29 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root vboxusers 4 2009-03-19 10:30 testfile
as user (in vboxusers group)
>cd /tmp/fubar
>ls -al
total 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 root vboxusers 4096 2009-03-19 10:30 .
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 12288 2009-03-19 10:29 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root vboxusers 4 2009-03-19 10:30 testfile
>echo bar >> testfile
>ls -al
total 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 root vboxusers 4096 2009-03-19 10:30 .
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 12288 2009-03-19 10:29 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root vboxusers 8 2009-03-19 10:31 testfile
>vim testfile
>ls -al
total 20
drwxrwxr-x 2 root vboxusers 4096 2009-03-19 10:31 .
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 12288 2009-03-19 10:31 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root vboxusers 12 2009-03-19 10:31 testfile
>cat testfile
foo
bar
baz