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Here's my setup:

Mac Mini running Snow Leopard

  • Sharing a folder with a bunch of code in it. The folder and everything in it is set for read/write access for both the main user and the "staff" group

Desktop running Lubuntu 11.04 (LXDE Ubuntu)

  • Accessing the share using Samba mount point as the Mini's main user
  • Also SSHed into Mini (using same user) to run Git commands (haven't yet figured out how or if it's possible to grant read/write permissions to the Git setup on my desktop, doing it like this is slower than SSH anyway)

I'm doing it this way (as opposed to setting up the Mini as a Git server), because I'm looking to have a sort of satellite setup with my laptop (whose harddrive I don't trust after it corrupted a Git repo or three), and wanted to see if the whole setup is possible by using my desktop as guinea pig (I don't like actually working on Macs, and the Mini doesn't handle my workflow and needs well), as well as various other reasons (so please don't say "just set up the Mini as a Git server"). So far, it's been working quite well.

However, I keep running into a particular issue that I'm not sure how to fix. Every so often, one or more files in the share changes the permissions for the "staff" group to read-only.

The cases I've found this to happen so far are:

  1. when I change branches in Git when I've changed a file and left it open in NetBeans (the change is committed to Git)

  2. when the Mac goes to sleep, the file(s) I have open go to read-only

  3. sometimes, when I change files on the Linux desktop, the Mac reacts by not only making it read-only, but also by deleting the contents of the file (thank Linus for git checkout [filename] in those cases)

I've worked around 2 by making it not go to sleep after inactivity, but 1 is a little harder, as there are times when I switch between branches frequently, and I often keep the files open for various reasons.

For some reason, the Mini seems to think that the user using the share is part of the "staff" group, but not actually the main user, even though mounting the share uses the same credentials.

So, is there a way to either

  1. make sure the file doesn't go to read-only for the "staff" group, or
  2. make the mount be recognized as the same user as the owner of the share?
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A comment for the downvote would be appreciated... –  Shauna Aug 23 '11 at 20:10
I think the contest is making everyone vote-happy. –  digitxp Aug 23 '11 at 21:51

1 Answer 1

up vote 0 down vote accepted

I suggest you replace samba with NFS in your setup, samba is alien to both Linux and Mac.

share|improve this answer
It's been a while since I was dealing with this issue (I eventually gave up, and my laptop died anyway, so I was again chained to my desk, making the matter moot anyway), but I think I tried NFS and the computers either wouldn't recognize each other, or I had permission/access issues that I couldn't fix at the time. I'll give NFS another try should the need/desire arise again, though. –  Shauna Mar 13 '12 at 19:29

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