Permissions on /var

[Jan Bruun Andersen <jan_bruun_andersen at jabba dot dk>]

Today, as I installed inetutils (I needed telnet for Cygwin; telnet
for Windows 10 does nothing; no error, no nothing) I got an error from
setup-084_64. The error message directed me to look at
/var/log/setup.log.full. Here is the relevant part, very near the end:

2015/10/28 00:55:10 running: C:\cygwin64\bin\dash.exe
"/etc/postinstall/0p_000_autorebase.dash"
cat: /var/lib/rebase/dynpath.d/*: No such file or directory
Updating package information in /var/cache/rebase/rebase_pkg.
        from /etc/setup/inetutils-server.lst.gz...
        from /etc/setup/inetutils.lst.gz...
Updating rebase information for installed dynamic objects in
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_lst.
Updating rebase information for installed executables in
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_exe.
removing /var/cache/rebase/rebase_dyn
creating empty /var/cache/rebase/rebase_dyn
Updating rebase information for user-defined dynamic objects
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_user.
Updating rebase information for user-defined executables
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_user_exe.
Rebasing with list /var/cache/rebase/rebase_all, built from
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_lst /var/cache/rebase/rebase_dyn
/var/cache/rebase/rebase_user.
2015/10/28 00:55:17 running: C:\cygwin64\bin\bash.exe --norc
--noprofile "/etc/postinstall/inetutils-server.sh"
*** Warning: The permissions on the directory /var are not correct.
*** Warning: They must match the regexp d..x..x..[xt]
*** ERROR: Problem with /var directory. Exiting.
*** Warning: The permissions on the directory /var are not correct.
*** Warning: They must match the regexp d..x..x..[xt]
*** ERROR: Problem with /var directory. Exiting.
2015/10/28 00:55:20 abnormal exit: exit code=1
2015/10/28 00:55:20 Changing gid to Administrators
Program directory for program link:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Desktop directory for desktop link: C:\Users\Public\Desktop
Desktop directory for desktop link: C:\Users\Public\Desktop
make_link C:\Users\Public\Desktop/Cygwin64 Terminal.lnk, Cygwin64
Terminal, C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty
make_link_2 (C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty, -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico -,
C:\cygwin64\Cygwin-Terminal.ico, C:\Users\Public\Desktop/Cygwin64
Terminal.lnk)
2015/10/28 00:55:27 note: Installation Complete
2015/10/28 00:55:27 Ending cygwin install

I tracked the check down to a function in
/usr/share/csih/cygwin-service-installation-helper.sh. It checks the
permissions with a call to function csih_check_dir_perms which ends up
doing this:

2162   if /usr/bin/stat -c "%A" "$1" | /usr/bin/grep -Eq ^"$2"
2163   then
2164     true
2165   else
2166     csih_warning "The permissions on the directory $1 are not correct."
2167     csih_warning "They must match the regexp $2"
2168     return 1
2169   fi

Doing a manual check, /usr/bin/stat -c "%A" /var, confirms that the
permissions are indeed wrong:

$ /usr/bin/stat -c "%A" /var
drwx---r-x

Group-permissions are empty.

Now, as a coincidence, I have a month-old copy of a previous Cygwin
installation on an external disk. This is the permissions on the old
Cygwin:

$ ls -lg /g/cygwin64/
total 513
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 25 15:22 bin
-rwxr-xr-x  1 AdministratÃrer     59 Sep 12 00:03 Cygwin.bat
-rw-r--r--  1 AdministratÃrer 157097 Sep 12 00:03 Cygwin.ico
-rw-r--r--  1 AdministratÃrer  53342 Sep 12 00:03 Cygwin-Terminal.ico
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 12 00:03 dev
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 30 13:42 etc
drwxrwxrwt+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 12 02:30 home
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 25 15:22 lib
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 12 00:02 sbin
drwxrwxrwt+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 30 13:30 tmp
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 18 20:19 usr
drwxr-xr-x+ 1 Unknown+Group        0 Sep 12 00:02 var

And here is my current install:

$ ls -lg /c/cygwin64/
total 621
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 28 00:55 bin
-rwxr-xr-x+ 1 jabba               71 Oct 26 00:48 Cygwin.bat
-rw-r--r--  1 AdministratÃrer 157097 Oct 26 00:16 Cygwin.ico
-rw-r--r--  1 AdministratÃrer  53342 Oct 26 00:16 Cygwin-Terminal.ico
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 26 00:15 dev
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 28 00:55 etc
drwx---rwt+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 26 00:17 home
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 27 18:37 lib
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 26 00:26 sbin
drwx---rwt+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 28 00:55 tmp
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 27 17:33 usr
drwx---r-x+ 1 jabba                0 Oct 27 18:37 var

As you can see, group-permissions is empty on a lot of the directories.

I don't know if it is relevant, but the old install is from a Windows
7 that was part of an AD-domain. The new install is my from my private
PC with Windows 10 Pro that (only) is part of a workgroup.

I guess I can just go ahead and give the group r-x permissions on /var
but I would be interested in knowing if this is a local problem, or a
common (real) problem.

Regards,
Jan

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