4 Ownership

A file or directory has three types of owners. A program running as a particular user, say u can only assume the ownership of exactly one type of owner. The following are the rules that apply in the order of precedence.

• If u is the “user owner” of the file or directory, then the user owner permissions apply.
• Else if u is a member of the “group owner” of the file or directory, then the group owner permissions apply.
• Else u is a member of “others”, the permissions of “others” apply.