Using Repair Permissions

[Diane Ross]

Using Repair Permissions comes up quite often on this list. I ran across
this on Apple Discussions today and thought I would pass this along.

You do not need to Repair Permissions on a regular basis.

There are only three occasions you need to do this:

1. When you have just installed something that required you to run an
Installer, rather than just copying some software to a folder. This should
be done for both Apple and non-Apple software. (Note Office 2008 will come
with an Installer this time)

2. When you have been working on your OS X files or folders while booted
from OS 9, or remotely connected via a non-OS X machine, since OS 9 and
other systems do not handle OS X's permissions correctly.

3. The other case is if your system is behaving strangely, when you should
run Disk Repair from your CD followed by Repair Permissions. This is just to
eliminate these things before going on to further trouble-shooting.

Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!

Best to run Repair Permissions from your HD not from the CD.

For more info on Repair Permissions see:

Apple - Support - Discussions - kmosx: Repair Permissions and Repair ...
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121887>

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

[...]

Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!

On the other hand... it never hurts.
The problem is that some installers have a nasty habbit to mess up a
lot of permissions.
I'd have to add that some applciations do alter files and folder
permissions when they run (often the ones that ask you for a password
when you launch them), so it's not always a waste of time to repair
permissions.

Best to run Repair Permissions from your HD not from the CD.

That is absolutely true!!! I would say critical.
Here's why: When you install applications (especially through the
system Installer for .pkg and .mpkg applciations), they write down a
receipt in the /Library/Receipt folder (and there is a newer scheme for
Leopard too).
When you repair eprmissions, the utility that takes care of that
(diskutil) check these receipts to look for instructions as to how to
set the permissions.

If you do this from the CD, permissions will only be set to the default
that was set for the version installed on your cd (eg: 10.4.0 or
10.5.0) and it won't be able to do a thing for all the updates and the
third party apps.
Same thing if you do it from another hard drive.

Corentin

 

[Tom Stiller]

[...]

Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!

On the other hand... it never hurts.
The problem is that some installers have a nasty habbit to mess up a
lot of permissions.
I'd have to add that some applciations do alter files and folder
permissions when they run (often the ones that ask you for a password
when you launch them), so it's not always a waste of time to repair
permissions.

Best to run Repair Permissions from your HD not from the CD.

That is absolutely true!!! I would say critical.
Here's why: When you install applications (especially through the
system Installer for .pkg and .mpkg applciations), they write down a
receipt in the /Library/Receipt folder (and there is a newer scheme for
Leopard too).
When you repair eprmissions, the utility that takes care of that
(diskutil) check these receipts to look for instructions as to how to
set the permissions.

If you do this from the CD, permissions will only be set to the default
that was set for the version installed on your cd (eg: 10.4.0 or
10.5.0) and it won't be able to do a thing for all the updates and the
third party apps.
Same thing if you do it from another hard drive.

Do you know for a fact that the repair permissions function reads the
receipts packages from the startup volume and not from the volume being
repaired?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Do you know for a fact that the repair permissions function reads the
receipts packages from the startup volume and not from the volume
being repaired?

It's been reported many times (for previous versions of the OS).
Now.... it might have been fixed in Leopard. I haven't had the guts to
joepardize my system and give it a try :->
I confirmed it myself a couple of times in the past though: few things
were corrected through the install DVD, but after a reboot on the Mac,
repairing from the proper boot volume re-repaired a lot more
permissions.

Corentin

 

[aRKay]

For more info on Repair Permissions see:

Apple - Support - Discussions - kmosx: Repair Permissions and Repair ...
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121887>

The link to an Apple discussion topic is really OLD....Posted: Mar 28,
2003 8:42 AM. Have you seen anything from Apple on this topic for
Leopard?

What used to take 2 minutes in Tiger now takes 15 to 30 minutes probably
due to the hosed 10.5 ACLs.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

<[email protected]> aRKay

What used to take 2 minutes in Tiger now takes 15 to 30 minutes
probably due to the hosed 10.5 ACLs.

it could also be that the new database-like structure for Leoaprd
receipts makes things more complicated to fix :-\

Corentin

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Diane,

Personally, before running Disk Utility I prefer to run Alsoft's
DiskWarrior, and then repair permissions.

-Jim

Using Repair Permissions comes up quite often on this list. I ran across
this on Apple Discussions today and thought I would pass this along.

You do not need to Repair Permissions on a regular basis.

There are only three occasions you need to do this:

1. When you have just installed something that required you to run an
Installer, rather than just copying some software to a folder. This should
be done for both Apple and non-Apple software. (Note Office 2008 will come
with an Installer this time)

2. When you have been working on your OS X files or folders while booted
from OS 9, or remotely connected via a non-OS X machine, since OS 9 and
other systems do not handle OS X's permissions correctly.

3. The other case is if your system is behaving strangely, when you should
run Disk Repair from your CD followed by Repair Permissions. This is just to
eliminate these things before going on to further trouble-shooting.

Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!

Best to run Repair Permissions from your HD not from the CD.

For more info on Repair Permissions see:

Apple - Support - Discussions - kmosx: Repair Permissions and Repair ...
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121887>

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Diane Ross]

What used to take 2 minutes in Tiger now takes 15 to 30 minutes probably
due to the hosed 10.5 ACLs.

It does take longer in Leopard, but try this fix:

Re-install the 10.5.1 update using the downloaded "standalone" updater. This
should fix most of the SUID errors.

This is new in Leopard:

Boot to the Leopard install disk and from the Utilities menu select a user
account that needs its ACL's reset.

Then select the reset option at the bottom.

It is done when there is a faded Done button at the bottom and you can
select the hard drive and user name again and the reset button is available
again.

This only resets the top levels of the user directories but you should be
able to use the Get Info window to complete the changes by choosing to apply
to enclosed items.

 

[Diane Ross]

Personally, before running Disk Utility I prefer to run Alsoft's
DiskWarrior, and then repair permissions.

Don't run DW to repair permission. It will hose your preferences. It's OK to
run DW from the CD in Leopard, but don't use the Repair Permissions function
in DW.

I believe they have released a new version for Intel users, but has this
been updated for Leopard?

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Don't run DW to repair permission. It will hose your preferences. It's OK to
run DW from the CD in Leopard, but don't use the Repair Permissions function
in DW.

I believe they have released a new version for Intel users, but has this
been updated for Leopard?

My last check at http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/support.html indicated
that their tech support people are still talking about the pre-Leopard
version and have had nothing new to post since Nov. 1. Their "Buy now"
link still showed the pre-Leopard DiskWarrior 4.0:
http://www.alsoft.com/Support/index.html A lot of us are waiting for
Alsoft to update DW.

I¹ve been using the Leopard-compatible TechTool Pro 4.6.1 for hardware,
system, volume and file diagnostics and for directory maintenance and file
and volume repair.

As preventive maintenance, I use Macaroni¹s system preferences software to
run Repair Permissions for me automatically at the intervals I set. I have
it done frequently because I do a lot of software updates and new
installations as well as some donated beta testing. Macaroni automatically
runs monthly, weekly, and Leopard-maintenance tasks. And I have it do a
monthly trashing of all localized files for languages that I do not use.
Info on the Leopard-compatible version is at
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16593


Respectfully, Norm

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Diane, how long does Repair Permissions take on your Mac?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Diane, how long does Repair Permissions take on your Mac?

I'm not Diane, but I can confirm that it takes a long time under
Leopard, especially the first time.

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Diane,

Personally, before running Disk Utility I prefer to run
Alsoft'sDiskWarrior, and then repair permissions.

DiskWarrior (and Cocktail, TinkerTool System and... and DiskUtility)
all actually do the same thing. They are front-ends to the diskutil
command.
You could simply launch your Terminal and use this command:

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /


Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Don't run DW to repair permission. It will hose your preferences.

Not if you do it from the boot volume. We're back at the same point as
before. As I was saying in another post, DW uses the same command all
the other utilities do anyway
From the CD of course, you'll hose your permissions just as you would
from the Apple DVD.

Corentin

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

On my Dual G5 2.0, OS 10.5.1's Disk Utility takes 10 minutes to Repair
Permissions. Norm

 

[Diane Ross]

Not if you do it from the boot volume. We're back at the same point as
before. As I was saying in another post, DW uses the same command all
the other utilities do anyway
From the CD of course, you'll hose your permissions just as you would
from the Apple DVD.

Perhaps not....

To repair permissions of a Leopard startup disk, be sure you've always
started your Mac from Leopard. Alsoft also recommends using only the Disk
Utility included with Leopard to repair permissions until an updated version
of DiskWarrior is released.

DiskWarrior Support <http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/support.html>

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane, how long does Repair Permissions take on your Mac?

It seems like forever if you are watching it.

 

[Diane Ross]

Diane, how long does Repair Permissions take on your Mac?

Running a test now.

Start time 06:31:0
Finish time no longer than 6:48:00

I got tired of watching it do it's thing. It was pretty close to the 6:48
time.

I did use the standalone updater and had only one SUID warning.

G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB, Mac OS X 10.5.1

 

[aRKay]

Diane, how long does Repair Permissions take on your Mac?

[/QUOTE]

For grins I started at 10:36 UTC and finished at 10:49 or about 13
minutes with same old ACL comments

Repairing permissions for "Macintosh HD"
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library/Preferences".
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library".
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root".

iMac 2.4 GHz, 2 GB, OSX 10.5.1

aRKay

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Diane,

Use Disk Warrior to repair the directory (and along the way it repairs
volume and file problems).

Use Apple's Disk Utility to repair permissions.

-Jim

Don't run DW to repair permission. It will hose your preferences. It's OK to
run DW from the CD in Leopard, but don't use the Repair Permissions function
in DW.

I believe they have released a new version for Intel users, but has this
been updated for Leopard?

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info