File Management

File Management

Amanda Dyer

POS/355

September 4, 2014

August Smith

File Management

File management in any computer system is a very crucial function. Proper file management alleviates everyday issues in file protection, to allow a smooth experience for users. Using file protection for operating systems, such as Unix, can be very easy and simple. Unix is a multiuser operating system that is used on a wide range of machines from powerful microcomputers to supercomputers (Stallings, 2012). In Unix, permissions are configured to allow owner(s) to define different permissions of files by restricting or permitting access where needed. These permissions are set to categories of owner, group, and other permissions. In early versions of file control and access for Unix, users where assigned a user identification number. These users also were members of groups and a group identification number identified each group. Now when a file is created by a user, not only is the file owned by a specific owner, but by the owners primary group as well. Attached to files are protection bits, where read, write, and execute permissions are specified and carried down to other users of the group/groups the owner belongs to. Anyone can see the issue that lies in this type of file access control. What happens when the owner desires only specific users or no users at all to have access to the created file?

Several modern Unix-based operating systems are supporting protection schemes called Access Control Lists or ACLs. Unix-based systems include big named operating systems such as, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. Implementing this type of protection scheme provides controlled access to certain files, guaranteeing the availability and integrity of the files is always maintained. Suppose your company had an organization that supports 5000 users. Your company had a file that 10 users of the company were not allowed access to the file. What do you do? Achieving this goal is...