Provided by: nfs4-acl-tools_0.3.7-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       nfs4_acl - NFSv4 Access Control Lists

DESCRIPTION

       An ACL is a list of permissions associated with a file or directory and consists of one or
       more Access Control Entries (ACEs).  NFSv4 ACLs provide  finer  granularity  than  typical
       POSIX read/write/execute permissions and are similar to CIFS ACLs.

       A  sample  NFSv4  file  ACL  might look like the following (see the ACL FORMAT section for
       detailed information):

              A::OWNER@:rwatTnNcCy
              A::alice@nfsdomain.org:rxtncy
              A::bob@nfsdomain.org:rwadtTnNcCy
              A:g:GROUP@:rtncy
              D:g:GROUP@:waxTC
              A::EVERYONE@:rtncy
              D::EVERYONE@:waxTC

       Some observations:

       -  In the example output above, the  user  `alice@nfsdomain.org'  has  the  equivalent  of
          "read"  and "execute" permissions, `bob@nfsdomain.org' has "read" and "write", and both
          `GROUP@' and `EVERYONE@' have "read".

       -  NFSv4 ACLs are "default-deny"; that is, if a permission is not explicitly granted by an
          Allow  ACE, it is denied.  Because of this, the two Deny ACEs above are superfluous and
          could be excluded by the server.  See the A WARNING ABOUT DENY ACES  section  for  more
          information.

       -  NFSv4  servers  may  return an ACL slightly different than one you set.  For example, a
          server that always allows reading the attributes of a file may  silently  turn  on  the
          read-attributes  permission, and a server that does not support separate write-data and
          append-data permissions, e.g., may choose to turn off both if you  set  only  one.   In
          extreme cases the server may also reorder or combine ACEs.  As a general rule, however,
          servers will attempt to ensure that the ACLs they return are no  more  permissive  than
          the ones you set.

ACL FORMAT

       An  NFSv4  ACL  is  written  as  an  acl_spec,  which  is a comma- or tab-delimited string
       consisting of one or more ace_specs.  A single NFSv4 ACE is written as an ace_spec,  which
       is a colon-delimited, 4-field string in the following format:

              type:flags:principal:permissions

   ACE TYPES:
       There  are  four  types of ACEs, each represented by a single character.  An ACE must have
       exactly one type.

       A      Allow - allow principal to perform actions requiring permissions.

       D      Deny - prevent principal from performing actions requiring permissions.

       U      Audit - log any attempted access by principal which requires permissions.  Requires
              one  or  both  of the successful-access and failed-access flags.  System-dependent;
              not supported by all servers.

       L      Alarm - generate a system alarm at any attempted access by principal which requires
              permissions.   Requires  one  or  both  of  the successful-access and failed-access
              flags.  System-dependent; not supported by all servers.

   ACE FLAGS:
       There are three kinds of ACE flags: group, inheritance, and administrative.  An  Allow  or
       Deny ACE may contain zero or more flags, while an Audit or Alarm ACE must contain at least
       one of the successful-access and failed-access flags.

       Note that ACEs are inherited from the parent  directory's  ACL  at  the  time  a  file  or
       subdirectory  is  created.   Accordingly,  inheritance flags can be used only in ACEs in a
       directory's ACL (and are therefore stripped from inherited ACEs  in  a  new  file's  ACL).
       Please see the INHERITANCE FLAGS COMMENTARY section for more information.

       GROUP FLAG - can be used in any ACE

       g      group - indicates that principal represents a group instead of a user.

       INHERITANCE FLAGS - can be used in any directory ACE

       d      directory-inherit - newly-created subdirectories will inherit the ACE.

       f      file-inherit  -  newly-created  files  will  inherit the ACE, minus its inheritance
              flags.  Newly-created subdirectories will inherit the ACE; if directory-inherit  is
              not  also  specified in the parent ACE, inherit-only will be added to the inherited
              ACE.

       n      no-propagate-inherit - newly-created subdirectories will inherit the ACE, minus its
              inheritance flags.

       i      inherit-only  -  the  ACE  is  not  considered  in  permissions  checks,  but it is
              heritable; however, the inherit-only flag is stripped from inherited ACEs.

       ADMINISTRATIVE FLAGS - can be used in Audit and Alarm ACEs

       S      successful-access - trigger an alarm/audit when principal is allowed to perform  an
              action covered by permissions.

       F      failed-access  - trigger an alarm/audit when principal is prevented from performing
              an action covered by permissions.

   ACE PRINCIPALS:
       A principal is either a named user (e.g., `myuser@nfsdomain.org') or group  (provided  the
       group  flag  is  also  set),  or  one of three special principals: `OWNER@', `GROUP@', and
       `EVERYONE@':

       OWNER@ matches the file's owner

       GROUP@ matches the file's group

       EVERYONE@
              always matches.  (Note this is different from the "other"  used  in  mode  bits  or
              POSIX ACLs, which does not match the file's owner or group.)

   ACE PERMISSIONS:
       There  are a variety of different ACE permissions (13 for files, 14 for directories), each
       represented by a single character.  An ACE should  have  one  or  more  of  the  following
       permissions specified:

       r      read-data (files) / list-directory (directories)

       w      write-data (files) / create-file (directories)

       a      append-data (files) / create-subdirectory (directories)

       x      execute (files) / change-directory (directories)

       d      delete  -  delete the file/directory.  Some servers will allow a delete to occur if
              either this permission  is  set  in  the  file/directory  or  if  the  delete-child
              permission is set in its parent directory.

       D      delete-child  -  remove  a  file  or  subdirectory  from within the given directory
              (directories only)

       t      read-attributes - read the attributes of the file/directory.

       T      write-attributes - write the attributes of the file/directory.

       n      read-named-attributes - read the named attributes of the file/directory.

       N      write-named-attributes - write the named attributes of the file/directory.

       c      read-ACL - read the file/directory NFSv4 ACL.

       C      write-ACL - write the file/directory NFSv4 ACL.

       o      write-owner - change ownership of the file/directory.

       y      synchronize - allow clients to use synchronous I/O with the server.

INHERITANCE FLAGS COMMENTARY

       Inheritance flags  can  be  divided  into  two  categories:  "primary"  (file-inherit  and
       directory-inherit);  and  "secondary"  (no-propagate-inherit  and inherit-only), which are
       significant only insofar as they affect the two "primary" flags.

       The no-propagate-inherit and inherit-only flags can be  tricky  to  remember:  the  former
       determines  whether  or not a new child directory's inherited ACE is itself heritable by a
       grandchild subdirectory; the latter determines whether or not a heritable ACE affects  the
       parent directory itself (in addition to being heritable).  They can be used in-tandem.

       When  a  subdirectory  inherits an ACE from its parent directory's ACL, this can happen in
       one of two different ways, depending on the server implementation:

       -  In the simple case, that exact same ACE is set in the subdirectory's ACL.

       -  In the other case, two different ACEs will instead be set in  the  subdirectory's  ACL:
          one  with all inheritance flags removed, and one with the inherit-only flag added.  The
          former is the "effective" inherited ACE (used in  the  subdirectory's  own  permissions
          checks);  the  latter  is  the  "heritable"  inherited  ACE  (when the subdirectory has
          directories created within it, they inherit it).  This  approach  makes  it  easier  to
          modify  access  rights to the subdirectory itself without modifying its heritable ACEs.
          The Linux kernel server uses this approach.

A WARNING ABOUT DENY ACES

       Deny ACEs should be avoided whenever possible.  Although they are a valid  part  of  NFSv4
       ACLs,  Deny  ACEs  can  be  confusing and complicated.  This stems primarily from the fact
       that, unlike POSIX ACLs and CIFS ACLs, the ordering of ACEs within NFSv4 ACLs affects  how
       they are evaluated.

       First,  it is important to note that (despite some unfortunate ambiguity in RFC3530) NFSv4
       ACLs are "default-deny" in practice.  That is, if a permission is not explicitly  granted,
       it is denied.

       In  general, when a principal is attempting to perform an action over NFSv4 which requires
       one or more permissions, an access check is performed.  The NFSv4  ACL  (assuming  one  is
       present)  is evaluated ACE-by-ACE until every one of those permissions has been addressed,
       or until the end of the ACL is reached.  If every  requisite  permission  was  granted  by
       Allow  ACEs and was not forbidden by Deny ACEs (see next paragraph), the action is allowed
       to proceed.  Otherwise, the action is forbidden.

       Note that each requisite permission is only addressed once -- that is, after a  permission
       has  been explicitly Allowed or Denied once during an access check, any subsequent ACEs in
       the ACL which affect that permission are no  longer  considered.   This  often  introduces
       problematic ordering issues when Deny ACEs are present.

       Additionally,  in  some  cases  Group-Deny  ACEs  can  be difficult (if not impossible) to
       enforce, since a server might not know about all of a  given  principal's  memberships  in
       remote groups, e.g.

       Because  NFSv4  ACLs  are "default-deny", the use of Deny ACEs can (and should) be avoided
       entirely in most cases.

AUTHORS

       Tools for viewing and manipulating NFSv4 ACLs, nfs4_getfacl and nfs4_setfacl, were written
       by    people    at    CITI,    the   Center   for   Information   Technology   Integration
       (http://www.citi.umich.edu).  This manpage was written  by  David  Richter  and  J.  Bruce
       Fields.

CONTACT

       Please send bug reports, feature requests, and comments to <nfsv4@linux-nfs.org>.

SEE ALSO

       nfs4_getfacl(1), nfs4_setfacl(1), RFC3530 (NFSv4.0), NFSv4.1 Minor Version Draft.