Re: vim vs nano on editing system files

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dahong Tang" <tang.dahong@gmail.com>
>
> On Thursday, August 8, 2013 11:42:31 AM UTC-5, Rob Owens wrote:
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> > > From: "Rob Owens" <rowens@ptd.net>
> >
> > >
> >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> > > > From: "Dahong Tang" <tang.dahong@gmail.com>
> >
> > >
> >
> > > > Here are the commands that I tested:
> >
> > > >
> >
> > > > $ sudo touch testvim
> >
> > > > $ ls -al
> >
> > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 8 08:25 testvim
> >
> > > > $ vi testvim
> >
> > > > :w!
> >
> > > > :q
> >
> > > > $ ls -al
> >
> > > > -rw-r--r-- 1 user user 0 Aug 8 08:26 testvim
> >
> > > >
> >
> > > > I don't understand why vim would override both file permission
> > > > and
> >
> > > > ownership. Any ideas?
> >
> > > >
> >
> > >
> >
> > > I can't reproduce this. When I enter :w! I get the following
> >
> > > message:
> >
> > >
> >
> > > "testvim" E212: Can't open file for writing
> >
> > > Press ENTER or type command to continue
> >
> > >
> >
> > > This is on a Debian Wheezy system with the packaged version of
> > > vim.
> >
> > >
> >
> > I tried the above in the /tmp directory. When I try it in my own
> > home directory, it indeed works like Dahong says.
> >
> >
> >
> > -Rob
>
> It's strange isn't it? You think nobody could mess with 644 files
> that belong to you, but if another user has write permission to the
> same directory, then he can overwrite your files using vim and
> totally mess them up. I don't understand why this was chosen as the
> default behavior of vim. Seems dangerous.
>
It does seem dangerous, but I don't think it has anything to do with vim. As root, I created a file in /home/rob. The rob user was able to delete that file after a warning about a write-protected file. Try it! I learned something new about linux file permissions today...

-Rob

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