Mac OS X Lion Server For Dummies®

Controlling User Access to Share Points

Typically, every user who has an account has read-only access to a new shared folder by default. (This access can be different, depending on your settings for inherited permissions, as described in Chapter 8.) You can use the Server app to make changes to who can access a folder and what each user can do. You can restrict access to certain users or groups or give additional people access.

You can make permissions changes for a share point in three places:

• The most obvious place is in the File Sharing pane of the Server, with the share point double-clicked (refer to Figure 9-2). Here, you can make changes to simple POSIX permissions (also known as standard permissions).
• You can also edit POSIX permissions in the Finder's Get Info window for a folder. You can even add users here.
• The least obvious place — some might say hidden — is in the pane for your server, where you can make more extensive changes to access control lists (ACLs), including setting inheritance.

Chapter 8 describes what the various permissions options are, what the terms mean, and what the options can do for you. The following sections describe how to use these three methods to change permissions.

Using the File Sharing pane of the Server app to set basic permissions

In the File Sharing pane, you can make two types of changes to a share point's POSIX permissions:

• You can add a user or group to give them access to the folder or to block user access to the folder.
• You can ...