Topics | Info window
Owners, groups, and permissions
Owners
An item's owner is the user who is considered to own it. You can change the owner of an item using the Owner menu. The menu is divided into three sections. In the top section is a list of all the "human" users registered on your computer. The second section always contains the System Administrator, also known as "root." Depending on an items's permissions, you may need an administrator password to access it if it is owned by this user. The third section contains a list of system users the system creates for accounting purposes.
Groups
A group is a list of users with common privileges. You will not usually need to concern yourself with a file's group. Most files will have the group "staff."
Permissions
Permissions determine specifically who can do what to a file or folder. The Finder allows you to override permissions settings if you enter an administrator password. The four possible permissions settings are:

- Read & Write: Allowed to both read and modify the contents of the item.
- Read Only: Allowed to read, but not modify, the contents of the item.
- Write Only (Drop box): Allowed to modify, but not read, the contents of the item. Not generally useful for files.
- No Access: Unable to read or modify the contents of the item.

To set permissions for a file or folder, open the pop-up menu to the far right of the Owner, Group, or Everyone fields, and choose the appropriate setting.
Be careful when setting owners, groups, and permissions; it is possible to lock other users out of their files or to render your system partially unusable.
Permissions are not related to the Locked Finder flag. The Locked flag can be set independantly of the permissions. The Finder will honor whichever setting is more restrictive.