source: BOOK/chroot/common/changingowner.xml@ f3c06b3

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  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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<sect1 id="ch-chroot-changingowner">
  <?dbhtml filename="changingowner.html"?>

  <title>Changing Ownership</title>

    <note>
      <para>This step is not optional as some of the binaries in 
      <filename class="directory">/tools</filename> are set u+s.
      Leaving the permissions as is could cause some commands,
      <command>mount</command> in particular, to fail later.</para>
    </note>

    <para os="a">Currently, the <filename class="directory">/tools</filename>
    and <filename class="directory">/cross-tools</filename> directories
    are owned by the user <emphasis>clfs</emphasis>, a user that
    exists only on the host system. Although the <filename
    class="directory">/tools</filename> and <filename
    class="directory">/cross-tools</filename> directories can be deleted
    once the CLFS system has been finished, they can be retained to build
    additional CLFS systems. If the <filename class="directory">/tools</filename>
    and <filename class="directory">/cross-tools</filename> directories are
    kept as is, the files are owned by a user ID without a corresponding
    account. This is dangerous because a user account created later could
    get this same user ID and would own the <filename
    class="directory">/tools</filename> directory and all the files therein,
    thus exposing these files to possible malicious manipulation.</para>

    <para os="b">To avoid this issue, add the <systemitem
    class="username">clfs</systemitem> user to the new CLFS system later when
    creating the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file, taking care to assign
    it the same user and group IDs as on the host system. Alternatively,
    assign the contents of the <filename class="directory">/tools</filename>
    and <filename class="directory">/cross-tools</filename> directories to
    user <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> by running the
    following commands:</para>

<screen os="c"><userinput>chown -Rv 0:0 /tools
chown -Rv 0:0 /cross-tools</userinput></screen>

    <para os="d">The commands use <parameter>0:0</parameter> instead of
    <parameter>root:root</parameter>, because <command>chown</command>
    is unable to resolve the name <quote>root</quote> until the
    <filename>passwd</filename> file has been created.</para>

</sect1>