A previous article covered some basics about file permissions on your Fedora system. This installment shows you additional ways to use permissions to manage file access and sharing. It also builds on the knowledge and examples in the previous article, so if you haven’t read that one, do check it out.

Symbolic and octal

In the previous article you saw how there are three distinct permission sets for a file. The user that owns the file has a set, members of the group that owns the file has a set, and then a final set is for everyone else. These permissions are expressed on screen in a long listing (ls -l) using symbolic mode.

Each set has r, w, and x entries for whether a particular user (owner, group member, or other) can read, write, or execute that file. But there’s another way to express these permissions: in octal mode.

You’re used to the decimal numbering system, which has ten distinct values (0 through 9). The octal system, on the other hand, has eight distinct values (0 through 7). In the case of permissions, octal is used as a shorthand to show the value of the r, w, and x fields. Think of each field as having a value:

• r = 4
• w = 2
• x = 1

Now you can express any combination with a single octal value. For instance, read and write permission, but no execute permission, would have a value of 6. Read and execute permission only would have a value of 5. A file’s rwxr-xr-x symbolic permission has an octal value of 755.

You can use octal values to set file permissions with the chmod command similarly to symbolic values. The following two commands set the same permissions on a file:

chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r myfile1
chmod 644 myfile1

Special permission bits

There are several special permission bits also available on a file. These are called setuid (or suid), setgid (or sgid), and the sticky bit (or delete inhibit). Think of this as yet another set of octal values:

• setuid = 4
• setgid = 2
• sticky = 1

The setuid bit is ignored unless the file is executable. If that’s the case, the file (presumably an app or a script) runs as if it were launched by the user who owns the file. A good example of setuid is the /bin/passwd utility, which allows a user to set or change passwords. This utility must be able to write to files no user should be allowed to change. Therefore it is carefully written, owned by the root user, and has a setuid bit so it can alter the password related files.

The setgid bit works similarly for executable files. The file will run with the permissions of the group that owns it. However, setgid also has an additional use for directories. If a file is created in a directory with setgid permission, the group owner for the file will be set to the group owner of the directory.

Finally, the sticky bit, while ignored for files, is useful for directories. The sticky bit set on a directory will prevent a user from deleting files in that directory owned by other users.

The way to set these bits with chmod in octal mode is to add a value prefix, such as 4755 to add setuid to an executable file. In symbolic mode, the u and g can be used to set or remove setuid and setgid, such as u+s,g+s. The sticky bit is set using o+t. (Other combinations, like o+s or u+t, are meaningless and ignored.)

Sharing and special permissions

Recall the example from the previous article concerning a finance team that needs to share files. As you can imagine, the special permission bits help to solve their problem even more effectively. The original solution simply made a directory the whole group could write to:

drwxrwx---. 2 root finance 4096 Jul 6 15:35 finance

One problem with this directory is that users dwayne and jill, who are both members of the finance group, can delete each other’s files. That’s not optimal for a shared space. It might be useful in some situations, but probably not when dealing with financial records!

Another problem is that files in this directory may not be truly shared, because they will be owned by the default groups of dwayne and jill — most likely the user private groups also named dwayne and jill.

A better way to solve this is to set both setgid and the sticky bit on the folder. This will do two things — cause files created in the folder to be owned by the finance group automatically, and prevent dwayne and jill from deleting each other’s files. Either of these commands will work:

sudo chmod 3770 finance
sudo chmod u+rwx,g+rwxs,o+t finance

The long listing for the file now shows the new special permissions applied. The sticky bit appears as T and not t because the folder is not searchable for users outside the finance group.

drwxrws--T. 2 root finance 4096 Jul 6 15:35 finance

By Christine McKee
Sunday, July 28, 2019, 01:27 pm PT (04:27 pm ET)

Apple’s newest 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros are on sale this weekend, with fresh price drops knocking up to $350 off at top Apple Authorized Resellers, including Amazon, B&H Photo and Best Buy.

The back to school savings are in addition to closeout markdowns on MacBook Air and 2018 MacBook Pro models, with these new price drops offering record low prices on Apple’s latest laptops. Prices start at $1,099 for students thanks to Best Buy’s additional $100 student discount, although Amazon and B&H Photo are also offering aggressive deals regardless of student status (and B&H’s prices often come out even lower for those in qualifying states when you save on sales tax with the Payboo Card).

Those looking for the lowest price on a MacBook period can also snap up a 2018 MacBook Air for just $899, while discontinued 12-inch MacBooks are on sale for $999.

2019 13″ MacBook Pros on sale from $1,099

• 2019 13″ MacBook Pro (1.4GHz, 8GB, 128GB): $1,099.99 @ Best Buy for students ($200 off)
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• 2019 13″ MacBook Pro (1.4GHz, 8GB, 128GB): $1,199.99 @ Amazon ($100 off)
• 2019 13″ MacBook Pro (2.4GHz, 8GB, 256GB): $1,549.99 @ Best Buy for students ($250 off)
• 2019 13″ MacBook Pro (2.4GHz, 8GB, 256GB): $1,649 @ B&H ($150 off)
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Hundreds off in Apple savings

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Unity’s valuation has climbed to $6 billion after the company signed an investment deal with D1 Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Silver Lake Partners that will finance a $525 million tender offer to common shareholders.

The engine maker will only secure the full $525 million if enough shareholders, most of whom are former and current employees, decide to sell. Unity CFO, Kim Jabal, appears confident, however, and said the company is pleased to provide its staff with “the opportunity for some liquidity.”

Assuming Unity receives the full amount, it’d take the company’s recent funding total to $675 million, with a good chunk of that cash being raised through a hefty Series E funding round that took place in May.

It’s unclear whether the latest investment will have any impact on Unity’s long-rumored IPO plans. The company has apparently been preparing to go public in the first half of 2020 as long as market conditions are favorable, although we’ve yet to hear anything official confirming those reports.

“While I think we can learn a little bit from how that’s working over there, just like all games learn from each other, I don’t think their model exactly works for us.”

– PUBG Corp’s Brian Corrigan details the relationship between it and Fortnite dev Epic Games.

Despite past animosity, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp says there’s no bad blood between it and Fortnite developer Epic Games, going so far as to tell PCGamesN that “they’re one of our best partners.”

In that conversation, which can be found in full here, PUBG Corp studio director Brian Corrigan explains that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have grown into two quite different games, though they can learn lessons from one another.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s not like we’re taking the blueprint over there and trying to build a better photocopier,” says Corrigan. “That’s not it. If there’s pieces that work for us, that’s great, because we should learn from the best teachers across a lot of different games, but our formula is unique. That’s something we understand, and we have to always remember: this PUBG formula is unique, there really is nothing else out there like it.”

A relationship between the two companies is expected since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and, higher up the ladder, both companies are involved with the Chinese company Tencent.

Still, it’s quite a different tune from the one PUBG Corp was singing a little over a year ago. Last May, the company filed a lawsuit against Epic Games that alleged Fortnite’s then-new battle royale mode infringes on PUBG Corp’s copyrights due to its similarity to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Slightly before the lawsuit was launched, the vice president of PUBG Corp parent company Bluehole accused Epic of “replicating the experience for which Battlegrounds is known” through the free-to-play Fortnite mode. However, that lawsuit was quietly withdrawn less than a month later.

Killsquad is Now Available on Steam Early Access and is 20% off!*

Unleash hell on a coop A-RPG where bounty hunters raid planets for glory. Choose your quest on the Online Contract System. Unlock skills mid-mission to adapt. Wreak havoc with unique weapons. Scavenge materials to boost them. And, if you survive, spend your bounty on gear to live another day.

*Offer ends July 22 at 10AM Pacific Time

The combat update from 1.9 has been a controversial topic for many. Some loved the changes, while others hated it and refused to move on from 1.8.

Mojang has been hard at work trying to make it the best experience possible to the needs of PC players while also making sure those that play on phones or tablets have a good experience.

To this end, jeb has posted on Reddit a new custom snapshot which contains several large changes to combat.

This is a summary of those changes, as explained by jeb:

This “manually installed Java snapshot” is the first experiment of the new direction of combat mechanics. It’s based upon the current Java Edition system, but with the following major changes:

• Overall much faster attacks

• Attacks only happen when fully charged, even if you spam click

• You can hold to attack

• Weapons have different reach (attack range)

• When you stop attacking, the attack timer will continue charging to 200%

• At 200% you can perform special attacks (crits, sweeping, knockback) and these attacks have longer reach

• Sweeping only occurs on swords with the Sweeping enchantment

• Critical attacks (jump attacks) bypass shields

• Shields have no warm-up delay

• Shields also activate when crouching/sneaking

• If you hit something, the target’s “invulnerability timer” will be shorter if you have a quick weapon

Installation instructions:

Finding the Minecraft application folder:

• Windows: Press Ctrl+R and type %appdata%/.minecraft and press Ok

• Mac OS X: In Finder, in the Go menu, select “Go to Folder” and enter ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft

• Linux: ~/.minecraft or /home/<your username>/.minecraft/

Once you have the launcher set up you can download the server files from there as well.

If you have any comments, issues, or other criticisms, then leave a comment over on Reddit so that jeb will see it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/c5mqwv/a_custom_java_edition_snapshot_to_test_new_combat/

News | Bungie.net”> News | Bungie.net”>

PlayStation Xbox Live Battle.net

This week, Fire Emblem: Three Houses made its debut on the Nintendo Switch. This is the first home console release for the series in over ten years and it delivers an absolutely wonderful strategy RPG experience. The voice acting in the game is equally as fantastic. Every single line of dialogue has been voiced and each character has a memorable identity because of it.

Recently, our American-based video producer Zion Grassl interviewed Joe Zieja, the voice of Claude Von Regan (the leader of the Golden Deer in Fire Emblem Three Houses). Zieja is a voice actor and author located in the LA region, who started out as an officer in the United States Air Force and eventually went on to pursue a career in voice acting.

In the above interview, you can find out how Joe landed the role as Claude, get some insight into the voice acting industry, find out his past history voicing characters such as Fox McCloud from the Star Fox series and much more.

View the full interview in the video above and tell us if you sided with The Golden Deer house in the new Fire Emblem game.

Click Here!