Rob Lockstone wrote:
| I guess I can kind of understand why doing the disk verify/fix needs to
| be special process that users need to run themselves on occasion and
| system updates are as good a time as any.
The disk check is part of the normal boot process. People need to run it explicitly because they don't reboot often enough to allow the boot check to keep things all neat and tidy. (Also, anyone with multiple partitions will need to check the non-boot partitions explicitly; the boot process checks only the boot partition.)
| But I don't understand why
| repairing privileges needs to be done by the user, or even at all for
| that matter. What causes privileges to get screwed up anyway and why
| can't it be prevented?
Permissions are stored in the file system, and are therefore subject to the same erosion processes that cause other file system damage. Disks, being physical objects, are imperfect things, subject to misbehavior. Kernel bugs may cause unintended modification of disk information. Spikes on the power line might hit at the right time to twiddle bits as they travel to or from the disk, or to change bits in the disk cache. Cosmic rays may change the magnetization on the disk. If I were an expert, I could probably come up with more reasons.
| If it's a necessary part of keeping your system
| running smoothly, it should be done automatically, and if it's
| especially important to do prior to updating system software, it should
| be part of that process so the user doesn't have to think about it.
You know the bug-reporter URL; go use it.
Glen Fisher
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