Fourth FAQ

for

Project 3 -- POSIX Files, Directories, and Permissions

Q. Ok, we're on the home stretch of teamsync, and that 20% bonus is gonna make getting it done tonight even better, assuming we can do it, thanks a lot. :)

Anyways, on teamsync, I'm having some issues understanding why we're need to read as one user and write as the other. Do I need to set test cases where the files are set to something where users have no read rights? All the the files I'm testing on in my current teamsync dir are mode 644 or something akin to that.

A. Yes, you definitely want to test cases where there are files and directories to be synchronized that are not readable by world. If all the files and directories to be synchronized had permissions of 644, then there would be no reason to create teamsync -- the other person could just specify fssync with one of your directories (or files) and one of his or her own directories (or files). The problem with this, of course, is what if you don't want everyone on the system to get copies of your files? You want to have them with permissions such as 600 to keep them from being copied by just anyone on the system. Nonetheless, when your team member runs teamsync, he or she should be able to have the files copied for him or her.