Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems permission repair issue

No matter how many times I repair permissions in 10.6.2, I get the following:

Repairing permissions for “SnowLeopard HD”

Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .

Repaired "usr/share/derby".

Permissions repair complete

There is an Apple Discussion about this.

Any other comments?

Yeah... as with 10.5, those aren't "permissions". The file's type has been changed by the OS designers. Somehow the software update mechanism in 10.6 has the same flaw as 10.5, and Disk Utility isn't getting the newest data... so it reports nonsense based on outdated information.

Or... maybe Apple just doesn't care how incredibly dumb that looks, or how much confusion it causes.

not so important that The file's type has been changed by the OS designers as it is the directory has been moved and a symlink left in its place.

I assume it's a common part of the development process in OS X because you see that in almost every app where they have versions, and currents in the package.

Anyway, easy cheap way to move or rename something and maintain backward compatibility or consistency...

Yes true (which i already knew), but note that it's Disk Utility which remains blissfully unaware of those details.

What's important is that the "Installer.app + Software Update.app + Disk Utility.app" team are not on the same page... and that [stupid] bug lowers the overall trustworthiness of Disk Utility, IMHO.

--

BTW, one could consider the fact that the *type* was changed to be rather significant... inasmuch as: there's no way for DU to "fix" that. Unlike chmod (or chown, chgrp, chflags, etc.), there's no such thing as chtype. [DU would need to start deleting and creating/copying files... but that job belongs to Installer.app (and Software Update).]

Which further highlights the sheer ludicrousness of these statements in the DURP report:

Repaired "usr/share/derby".
Permissions repair complete

"Repaired" ?? Really?
...yeah, RIIIIIIGHT!

How?

Just curious: if you run the DU again after "repair", will the same line show up like in Leopard? I don't have this on any of 4 computers running Snow. If not, maybe it was really repaired.

The "usr/share/derby, should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x" line? Yes. [see sentence #1 of post #1. ]


No. It cannot be "repaired" in the sense that you're thinking. Disk Utility can do NOTHING! And in fact, there is nothing it should do, even if it could... because the whole problem is that Disk Utility is referencing out-dated info.

What can happen is: something (Software Update or Installer?) will at some point properly update that "permissions database" which DU is referencing... and then DU will finally see that there is nothing wrong, and thus nothing to report about.

It is curious that some machines have a few such oddball items show up, and some don't. [i.e, it's not perfectly uniform across all versions and models.] That much leads me to believe that a 'race condition' may be involved somehow (probably somewhere at the end of the update process?). Some have reported that re-running combo updates can make these errors go away. That i would believe is possible... but not a guaranteed cure every single time for ever single user. What's ultimately needed is for Apple to squash the bug.

Thanks! Will be more attentive next time

And thanks to you. The way i left things in my prior post didn't really tell the full story. I hope my reply to you provided additional useful info.


That's what i'm here for.
Oh Stop.   
[DURP's burps is just one of my sore spots... gets me all excitable.]

An interesting development. Yesterday, I did software update. It was superdrive firmware update and something minor, plus a new version of Perian. After that, repaired permissions. Got exactly the same thing as Jon, although did not have it before.