non-superuser chown(2)s considered harmful

[Ian Donaldson]

johnl at iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine) writes:
>Does anyone really do quota accounting by the UID of the file?  Consider
>the following scenario: User A creates a large file.  User B links to it.
>User A then deletes the original link.  If you charge by uid, user A is
>charged for the file even though she has no control over it any more, and
>might not even be able to see that it exists, depending on B's directory
>protections.

This is a silly argument.  For user B to write to the file, he must
have been granted permission by user A.  Thus it is user A's responsibility
in the first place that the subsequent space charging is against him.

If user A wants to prevent others writing his files, thats easy.
User A can also prevent people linking to his files by hiding them
below a directory that has the appropriate permissions.

Ian D