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I noticed this a while ago, but I have no idea what it means, or if it even means anything.. it's pretty weird though...

When you do Cmd-I (Get Information) on the hard drive and look at the permissions at bottom, they are:

  • system: R&W
  • admin: R&W
  • everyone: Read only

On my home folder they are:

  • admin (Me): R&W
  • staff: Read only
  • everyone: Read only

Why are these different, and should they not be?

I've repaired permissions and repaired disk and whatever in DiskUtility, but it's still the same. I've also noticed that on other folders the name is "derby" instead of "staff".

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1 Answer

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I believe this is normal behavior. Read access is granted to a wider group than the admin for many files. The more important thing is where write permission are given.

See this official document for more information: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963

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nono, I used the repair utility and it didnt change them... But I am not worried about the reading permissions to everyone (though that is rather troubling) but why the group is replaced in some cases by "derby" and why the user permissions for the HD are for 'system', but on the home folder permissions for the user 'is myUsername (Me)' – FALL3N Nov 11 '11 at 22:18

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