Permissions Repair has changed?

Question

I'm quite familiar with permissions checking/repair. Yet recently I've noticed when I run a check, it finishes in under a second. It's not possible to check this fast, so I'm wondering what's going on?
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hedi,
I'll give you my take on it. There seems to be two schools of thought regarding permissions repair. I still haven't completely gotten to the bottom of it yet. One side says that most software related problems you will run into in OS X is rooted in an error(s) in permissions. The other, which is very common on this board it that permissions errors are not "problems", rather just informational messages that aren't that important.
I get frustrated when I hear the latter, as I disagree that an "error" is not a "problem". An "error" sure sounds like a problem to me. If it's not a problem then don't call it an error!
Permissions are like rules. There are three rules types or categories for every file and folder. Read (r), write (w) and execute (x). The permissions system determines who can read, write and execute each file and folder. These rules are abbreviated as a three character grouping like 'rwx'. So 'rwx" would mean you could read, write and execute. In cases where a rule is denied there is a '-'. So 'r--' would indicate you could read, but you could not write or execute.
When you use Permissions Repair you will see permission sets referenced that look like 'drwxrw-r--'. This series of characters consists of a leading designation character, either '-' which indicates a file, or 'd' (for directory) which indicates a folder. Then there are three sets of three. The first set defines access for the owner (the owner is most often the user who created the file. Almost all files and folders in your home directory will have your username listed as the owner), the second set defines access for the group (admin users are members of the groups called "staff" and "admin". The super user "root" is a member of these and several other groups. Non-admin users are members of "staff" only. Typically, all files and folders are assigned to either "staff," "admin," or "wheel") and the third set defines access to others that are not the owner or part of a group.
Permissions Repair does change these settings. In the case of:
<v>"Permissions differ on "private/var/spool/cups/cache/rss", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are drwxrwxr-x ."</v>
Permissions Repair will change drwxrwxr-x to drwxr-xr-x. The difference between the two is that the first one has group write privileges and the second one does not.
I'm still learning this stuff.
Most of what I've said is paraphrased from this article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963