Permissions Issue in 10.8.2

[DanSandbergUCONN]

Hi All - I created a .txt file in TextEdit and then opened Get Info and checked the 'Locked' checkbox. I re-opened the Get Info window and the box was not checked. However, the file was behaving as if it was locked. Now I can not get it to behave as if it was unlocked. I tried re-checking the 'Locked' option and then unchecking it, no luck. I can not remove/delete the file. Even in terminal, if I navigate to the file and use

Quote: Daniels-MacBook-Proesktop sandberg$ sudo chmod a+rw ShoppingList.rtf Password: Daniels-MacBook-Proesktop sandberg$ sudo rm ShoppingList.rtf rm: ShoppingList.rtf: Operation not permitted

I get an error in terminal as shown above. How do I get this file to behave normally?

Also, the TextEdit application won't let me save files to the Desktop anymore.


EDIT: Okay, it appears the problem is with the Desktop! I can not create new folders on Desktop, nor move or delete anything that is on the Desktop.

[DanSandbergUCONN]

Sorry. I figured it out I needed to "Get Info" for the Desktop and uncheck the "Locked" option. I honestly don't know how it got checked in the first place. Very bizarre.

Edit: P.S. - I tried using terminal to do...

Quote: Daniels-MacBook-Pro:~ sandberg$ sudo chmod a+rw Desktop/ Password: chmod: Unable to change file mode on Desktop/: Operation not permitted

and, as shown, terminal can not change the mode of the Desktop folder, I suppose. Interesting...

[fracai]

"Locked" isn't the same as read/write/execute permissions.

You can inspect the "Attributes" of a file using GetFileInfo on the command line: GetFileInfo -a path/to/the/file

L or l indicates whether the file has been Locked or is not locked, respectively. There's also Visibility, among others.

Attributes can be changed using the SetFileInfo command.

At one point you needed to install the developer tools to get access to these commands, but I don't think that's been necessary since ... Snow Leopard?.

[DanSandbergUCONN]

Quote: Originally Posted by fracai "Locked" isn't the same as read/write/execute permissions. You can inspect the "Attributes" of a file using GetFileInfo on the command line: GetFileInfo -a path/to/the/file L or l indicates whether the file has been Locked or is not locked, respectively. There's also Visibility, among others. Attributes can be changed using the SetFileInfo command. At one point you needed to install the developer tools to get access to these commands, but I don't think that's been necessary since ... Snow Leopard?.

Great tips fracai. I'm more of a Linux guy by default but apple is a close second. Always love to learn some new terminal commands.