File Sharing in FCP Using the Shared Folder

Question

The following message from QXZ appeared last February. It never received an answer that solved the problem. I find that I have the same problem with my FCP 3 and 5 versions. Anyone know a solution?
I'm having trouble setting up our new FCP HD system so that different editors can open and save projects under their own usernames.
I set up a directory on the root level of the hard drive called FCP Projects and, as the superuser, set permissions on the directory to allow Read/Write by all users by setting chmod 777 -R /FCP\ Projects.
In theory this should have allowed Read/Write permissions on all files within the directory.
However, when I open an FCP project from that directory (or any directory) as a user other than the user who created the project FCP throws an "Access Denied" error when I try to save any changes to the project.
Anyone know why this is happening? I find it difficult to believe that an application written for a multi-user operating system does not support sharing projects between multiple users.
G-4, G-5   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

Although you have allowed open access to all users to save files in that directory, it's a pointless excersise as you have no system in place to allow one user to overwrite another users files. There's more to multiuser file access than simply making a place where you can all save files. Files created by each user have a unique user ID attached, and without a Group system in place for your users, OSX will (correctly) deny overwrites. You're going to need to learn about the unix filesystem and the chgrp function, and establish your users as being members of a Group before they can all overwrite each others files. It's much too large a topic to get into here, but a spot of research will sort you out. A word of caution though - filelocking is not a trivial subject and you probably want to consider other options - what happens if someone screws up a project and overwrites it 'behind the back' of another user?