Re^2: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin

influx,

Thanks for the information, below is the detail of

ls -la /var/spool 
drwxr-xr-x  9 root  root   4096 2012-05-16 09:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root  root   4096 2012-05-16 10:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root  root   4096 2012-03-19 19:17 cron
drwxr-xr-x  4 cyrus mail   4096 2012-03-20 17:19 cyrus
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  root      7 2012-03-19 19:06 mail -> ../mail
drwxr-S---  2 smmta smmsp 20480 2012-08-12 06:25 mqueue
drwxrws---  2 smmsp smmsp 12288 2012-08-12 06:25 mqueue-client
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  root   4096 2011-09-28 11:08 plymouth
drwxr-xr-x 28 cyrus mail   4096 2012-03-20 17:19 sieve
drwxr-xr-x 3 root  root   4096 2012-05-08 16:51 squirrelmail
[download]

My script were trying to send emails to the users,I belive the squirrelmail is the Email application, I tried what is instructed in the link but still getting the same error

below is the configuration of the file after making the changes

total 60
drwxrwx---  9 root smmsp  4096 2012-05-16 09:36 .
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root   4096 2012-05-16 10:57 ..
drwxr-xr-x  5 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-19 19:17 cron
drwxr-xr-x  4 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-20 17:19 cyrus
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root smmsp     7 2012-03-19 19:06 mail -> ../mail
drwxr-S---  2 root smmsp 20480 2012-08-18 21:20 mqueue
drwxrws---  2 root smmsp 12288 2012-08-18 21:20 mqueue-client
drwxr-xr-x  2 root smmsp  4096 2011-09-28 11:08 plymouth
drwxr-xr-x 28 root smmsp  4096 2012-03-20 17:19 sieve
drwxrwx---  3 root smmsp  4096 2012-05-08 16:51 squirrelmail
[download]

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Re^3: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin by roboticus (Chancellor) on Aug 19, 2012 at 02:18 UTC
romy_mathew: What are the permissions on /var/mail? If it's owned by root and doesn't give your account permission to the directory, you won't get to write to it, even if you have write access to the symlink. Example: `$ mkdir foo foo/bar foo/baz foo/bat $ cd foo $ chmod 000 bar $ ls -al total 44 drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 . drwxr-xr-x 4 marco marco 28672 2012-08-18 22:07 .. d--------- 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bar drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bat drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 baz` [download] OK, now we have directories bar and bat, identical except that bar has no permissions for anyone. Let's go into baz and make symlinks to bar and bat: `$ cd baz $ ln -s ../bar bar $ ln -s ../bat bat $ ls -al total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:08 . drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 .. lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco 6 2012-08-18 22:08 bar -> ../bar lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco 6 2012-08-18 22:08 bat -> ../bat` [download] As you can see, the permissions on the bar symlink are the same as for the bat symlink. Let's create a file and copy it to bar and bat: $ touch t $ cp t bat $ cp t bar cp: cannot stat `bar/t': Permission denied $ ls bat t $ ls bar ls: cannot open directory bar: Permission denied [download] What happened? You have access to the symlink, but not to the underlying directory. In short, if you're going to write a file to the directory, you'll need write access to the underlying directory. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re^3: Program requires special privilege e.g. as root or admin
by roboticus (Chancellor) on Aug 19, 2012 at 02:18 UTC

romy_mathew:

What are the permissions on /var/mail? If it's owned by root and doesn't give your account permission to the directory, you won't get to write to it, even if you have write access to the symlink. Example:

$ mkdir foo foo/bar foo/baz foo/bat
$ cd foo
$ chmod 000 bar
$ ls -al
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 marco marco 28672 2012-08-18 22:07 ..
d--------- 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bar
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 bat
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco  4096 2012-08-18 22:07 baz
[download]

OK, now we have directories bar and bat, identical except that bar has no permissions for anyone. Let's go into baz and make symlinks to bar and bat:

$ cd baz
$ ln -s ../bar bar
$ ln -s ../bat bat
$ ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:08 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 marco marco 4096 2012-08-18 22:07 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco    6 2012-08-18 22:08 bar -> ../bar
lrwxrwxrwx 1 marco marco    6 2012-08-18 22:08 bat -> ../bat
[download]

As you can see, the permissions on the bar symlink are the same as for the bat symlink. Let's create a file and copy it to bar and bat:

$ touch t
$ cp t bat
$ cp t bar
cp: cannot stat `bar/t': Permission denied
$ ls bat
t
$ ls bar
ls: cannot open directory bar: Permission denied
[download]

What happened? You have access to the symlink, but not to the underlying directory. In short, if you're going to write a file to the directory, you'll need write access to the underlying directory.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

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