Repair Disk Permissions taking 19 hours so far...

I semi-regularly use Onyx to repair disk permissions. (probably once a month). It normally takes around 30 minutes to complete. Yesterday my system started hanging so I ran repair disk from the boot cd. This was fine and took around fifteen minutes. Then I ran repair disk permissions from the boot CD. After around 30 minutes it said '1 minute remaining'. That was 19 hours ago....
It's still chugging along so it sounds like somethings happening - but the progress bar and remaining time have not changed.
So my question is - should I let it finish? How long should I wait? Is there anything else I could check?

Update to the Update!
I ran repair disk permissions from my profile and it finished (around 7 minutes). I've attached the log below in case it points to anything specific?
2010-09-05 10:08:37 -0500: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2010-09-05 10:13:39 -0500: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2010-09-05 10:13:40 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/deploy.jar".
2010-09-05 10:13:40 -0500: Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib", should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
2010-09-05 10:13:40 -0500: Repaired "System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Resources/JavaPlugin Cocoa.bundle/Contents/Resources/Java/libdeploy.jnilib".
2010-09-05 10:16:31 -0500: Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
2010-09-05 10:21:27 -0500:
2010-09-05 10:21:29 -0500: Permissions repair complete
2010-09-05 10:21:29 -0500:
2010-09-05 10:21:29 -0500:

Similar Messages

When I repair disk permissions using Disk Utility and it says it's completed the task, I click on it again and it repairs more. This has been going on for hours now. Could there be that many wrong permissions? Should it get to "all repaired" eventually?

When I repair disk permissions using Disk Utility and it says it's completed the task, I click on it again and it repairs more. This has been going on for hours now. Could there be that many wrong permissions? Should it get to "all repaired" eventually?

It's normal behavior. You don't have to worry about. Most of what's listed is just a report of what the utility finds., not necessarily that there is omething wrong.
If you want to find out more, read the link below, or see the More Like This links on this page.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US

Repair Disk Permissions - ACL found but...

Suddenly Repair Disk Permissions gives an exceptionally long list of "ACL found but not expected on xxxxxxxx" and apparently is unable to carry out repairs as each run of the "repair" brings up the same long list. Additionally, the reason I ignited the disk permissions repairs was that my PowerBook Pro suddenly appeared extremely slow - taking up to 3 hours to update a single application. I'd appreciate any feedback on correcting this ongoing issue.
Thanks - Earl
Example:
ACL found but not expected on “private”Repaired “private”ACL found but not expected on “private/tmp”Repaired “private/tmp”ACL found but not expected on “Applications/App Store.app/Contents”Repaired “Applications/App Store.app/Contents”ACL found but not expected on “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/Info.plist”Repaired “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/Info.plist”ACL found but not expected on “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/MacOS”Repaired “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/MacOS”ACL found but not expected on “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/MacOS/App Store”Repaired “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/MacOS/App Store”ACL found but not expected on “Applications/App Store.app/Contents/PlugIns”
MacBook Pro 15-inches 2.4/2.2 GHz
Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Running OS X Yosemite

Thanks so much for your advise, Linc, and sorry for the delay in getting back - things have ben pretty hectic since. I've now done as you suggested but rather than trying to find the log for the date the issue started (scrolling through what seems like miles and miles of lines of data) I've copied and am posting here a more recent section of the log taken while attempting to install an update to OS X 10.10.2 for the past 20 hours. Any help would be highly appreciated.
3/19/15 7:34:13.811 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service[6823]) Service exited with abnormal code: 1
3/19/15 7:34:13.807 PM digest-service[6823]: krb5_kdc_set_dbinfo: Failed to find KerberosKDC node
3/19/15 7:34:13.811 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
3/19/15 7:34:17.561 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> timerMethod
3/19/15 7:34:17.563 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> updateTable
3/19/15 7:34:17.631 PM AlertAll[64949]: Error returned from iconservicesagent: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (connection to service named com.apple.iconservices) UserInfo=0x78730cd0 {NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.iconservices}
3/19/15 7:34:20.780 PM kdc[6829]: krb5_kdc_set_dbinfo: Failed to find KerberosKDC node
3/19/15 7:34:20.782 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.kdc[6829]) Service exited with abnormal code: 1
3/19/15 7:34:20.782 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.kdc) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
3/19/15 7:34:22.561 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> timerMethod
3/19/15 7:34:22.563 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> updateTable
3/19/15 7:34:22.629 PM AlertAll[64949]: Error returned from iconservicesagent: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (connection to service named com.apple.iconservices) UserInfo=0x78731630 {NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.iconservices}
3/19/15 7:34:23.853 PM digest-service[6835]: krb5_kdc_set_dbinfo: Failed to find KerberosKDC node
3/19/15 7:34:23.854 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service[6835]) Service exited with abnormal code: 1
3/19/15 7:34:23.854 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
3/19/15 7:34:27.139 PM WindowServer[132]: CGXDisplayDidWakeNotification [204916449340023]: posting kCGSDisplayDidWake
3/19/15 7:34:27.141 PM WindowServer[132]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: Deferring.
3/19/15 7:34:27.521 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb59c9c0>: notification observer: com.apple.iChat   notification: __CFNotification 0x7fb8eb56ae20 {name = _NSDoNotDisturbDisabledNotification}
3/19/15 7:34:27.563 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> timerMethod
3/19/15 7:34:27.565 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> updateTable
3/19/15 7:34:27.840 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb59c9c0>:    NC Disabled: NO
3/19/15 7:34:27.848 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb59c9c0>:   DND Enabled: NO
3/19/15 7:34:27.849 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb59c9c0>: Updating enabled: YES   (Topics: (
    "com.apple.private.alloy.icloudpairing",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.continuity.encryption",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.continuity.activity",
    "com.apple.private.ids",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.phonecontinuity",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.continuity.activity.public",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.continuity.auth",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.idsremoteurlconnection",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.screensharing",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.maps",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.callhistorysync",
    "com.apple.private.alloy.continuity.tethering"
3/19/15 7:34:27.849 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb479af0>: notification observer: com.apple.iChat   notification: __CFNotification 0x7fb8eb56ae20 {name = _NSDoNotDisturbDisabledNotification}
3/19/15 7:34:27.861 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb479af0>:    NC Disabled: NO
3/19/15 7:34:27.873 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb479af0>:   DND Enabled: NO
3/19/15 7:34:27.873 PM identityservicesd[325]: <IMMacNotificationCenterManager: 0x7fb8eb479af0>: Updating enabled: YES   (Topics: (
    "com.apple.madrid"
3/19/15 7:34:28.012 PM AlertAll[64949]: Error returned from iconservicesagent: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (connection to service named com.apple.iconservices) UserInfo=0x78685530 {NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.iconservices}
3/19/15 7:34:30.876 PM kdc[6841]: krb5_kdc_set_dbinfo: Failed to find KerberosKDC node
3/19/15 7:34:30.877 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.kdc[6841]) Service exited with abnormal code: 1
3/19/15 7:34:30.877 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.Kerberos.kdc) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
3/19/15 7:34:32.561 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> timerMethod
3/19/15 7:34:32.563 PM AlertAll[64949]: >> updateTable
3/19/15 7:34:32.765 PM AlertAll[64949]: Error returned from iconservicesagent: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4097 "Couldn’t communicate with a helper application." (connection to service named com.apple.iconservices) UserInfo=0x7878bca0 {NSDebugDescription=connection to service named com.apple.iconservices}
3/19/15 7:34:33.904 PM digest-service[6847]: krb5_kdc_set_dbinfo: Failed to find KerberosKDC node

Repair disk permissions grayed out

Hello,
I have a WD External Drive that I use for Time Machine backup. Recently have had no backup (about 20 days) and finally decided to look into it. I use this one at work and have brought it home to work on what is wrong. Have tried to repair disk permissions, but option is grayed out. I have however been able to repair disk. It took 8 hours to repair disk which reported no problems.
I have tried to copy files from the backup disk to another disk, but it won't work (don't remember exact message-but it was something odd).
From another thread, I was trying to do this command:
sudo /usr/sbin/chown _installer:admin /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb
and got this response:
Home-Power-Mac-G5:~ paul$ sudo /usr/sbin/chown _installer:admin /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb
Password:
paul is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
so, I then try this command:
ls -leO /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb
and get this response:
-rw------- 1 _installer wheel - 266133504 Dec 15 22:03 /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb
WHAT do I do now? I want to first back up all files then reformat drive to start anew.

Hi Christopher Graham;
Since Repair Permission is repair the permissions for the system there has to be a system on the partition in order to not have that button ghosted. As far as Disk Utility can tell a Time Machine backup is not a System hence it is ghosted.
Allan

Oddity when attempting to repair disk permissions...

I upgraded to Leopard recently and have been encountering some bizarre issues as of late. For one, it doesn't start up anywhere near as fast as it did when I first installed Leopard. And as far as the reason I'm posting this right now, all the Disk Utility processes seem to take a really long time, longer than usual. I'm running 10.5.2.
Per example, I verify my disk permissions, and it sits for at least 3-5 minutes with the progress bar locked at about 1/8th complete and the time remaining is indicated as less than one minute. Then it moves forward and completes the process in anywhere between another 3-5 minutes. The same occurs when I repair disk permissions or even verify the disk entirely.
Also, I'm getting the following log message. It's particularly weird because the exact same message shows up in the log after verifying and then repairing disk permissions, as if the repair process isn't actually repairing anything.
*Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw-------, they are -rw-r-----.*
*ACL found but not expected on "Library".*
Again, this log message is displayed after completing each process. Quite odd... any thoughts? Please advise! Thanks in advance.

In a nutshell, repairing permissions w/Leopard takes anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on what's installed and what's contained in /Library/Receipts/bom/. The repair permissions operation has changed in Leopard. The stalled progress bar is an unresolved bug (they haven't figured out how to make it work whilst it's checking or rebuilding the a.receiptdb, in /Library/Receipts/db/. To see what's really going on, open that folder in a Finder window, select list view, launch Disk Utility, select your boot volume, and click on repair permissions. Watch the Finder window flash files that are being read and checked against the current a.receiptdb file. That's what's taking all the time and freezing the progress bar. Once that's finished, the progress bar starts moving and the permissions are being checked and repaired. Also note, that you won't get any *they were repaired message* back for any that are noted to be incorrect.

Repair Disk Permissions utility stalled - I have read the knowledge base

I have researched the knowledge base and search for posts on this and cannot find answer: Running 10.4 at the latest version. used the original install 1 disc I received with Tiger to repair disc permissions (like Apple support has told me to do in the past, but my current research said I do not need to do this unless certain parameters are met, and none of the parameters applied, but oh well, I am here anyway). Cold Boot from the original install disc 1 and slected the start up disk I use (I only have one start up disc/drive). Did a repair disc permissions and got a long running routine that reporting a lot of fixes, then the utility has stalled -- no progress on the progress bar. I "stopped" the process using the "stop repair" button (three times). The log reflected the utility stopped, but the progress bar still is blue and not moving (for a couple of hours). When I go to quity File >Disk Utility, it warns me that Disk Utility is running and this may make my system unstable/unsuable.
QUESTION: CAN I JUST QUIT DISK UTILITY AND NOT HAVE ANY ADVERSE AFFECT ON MY IMAC DRIVE?

Thanks for your advice, I still have an issue:
-after the first repair disk permission "stalled" process, I exited Disk Utility and cold booted the machine after I had disconnected all external devices other than the original iMac keyboard
-obtained the combo patch for 10.4.7 from the Apple download site (it had already been installed but I reinstalled per your advice)
-re-applied the combo patch and then did another cold boot
-ran Disk Utility from the original Tiger install #1 disk, and then selected "repair disk permissions" for my start up disk (I only have one)
- process ran for 10 minutes or so then gave the following error message: "Disk Utility Error: Disk Utility has lost its connection with disk utility management tool and cannot continue. Please quit disk utility and re-launch disk utility"
- I pushed the "stop disk permission repair" button, then quit disk utility, then cold booted the machine again.
-re-applied combo patch as above, then cold booted the machine
-ran disk utility from the original iMac install #1 disk, ran "repair disk permissions", and then received the same error message as above.
- I then just quit Disk Utility and cold booted the machine again and went about my business. There does not seem to be any problem with the machine (was not before, but I ran repair permissions thinkging this was a routine maintenance taks that should be run)
- in my prior search of the knowledge base, I found the following information about repair disk permissions:
Location: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607495&#607495
How often should I Repair Permissions?
You do not need to Repair Permissions on a regular basis.
There are only three occasions you need to do this:
1. When you have just installed something that required you to run an Installer, rather than just copying some software to a folder. This should be done for both Apple and non-Apple software.
2. When you have been working on your OS X files or folders while booted from OS 9, or remotely connected via a non-OS X machine, since OS 9 and other systems do not handle OS X's permissions correctly.
3. The other case is if your system is behaving strangely, when you should run Disk Repair from your CD followed by Repair Permissions. This is just to eliminate these things before going on to further trouble-shooting.
Otherwise you can happily forget about Permissions!"
So, it would appear I do not need to do anything else; the machine seems to be working properly. Is there anything else I need to do? thanks for the help! Bob

Warning Message after repairing disk permissions

I received the following warning after running Repair Disk Permissions:
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
My computer has been crashing a lot. Apple ran hardware tests and everything appears to be running OK. Could this message hold the key to my problems?

Probably not, please read this Apple Advice Letter:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448
However it would be very beneficial if you provide more information about the circumstances and specifications of your iMac to determine why it's crashing. Also if you are running Activity Monitor to check and see how much FREEE RAM you have and if there are any processes taking up a lot of % CPU.
Roger

Why isn't Disk Utility clear after "Repair Disk Permissions"?

Having used my computer for several days I decided to use Disk Utility to “Repair Disk Permissions” after a few hours of use.
2008-11-29 08:30:17 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 08:30:24 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 08:43:29 -0800: Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .
2008-11-29 08:48:26 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
2008-11-29 08:48:28 -0800:
I shut down the computer, turned off its power for 1 minute and restarted. I initiated Disk Utility once again.
2008-11-29 09:16:42 -0800: Disk Utility started.
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 09:20:55 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 09:38:47 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
2008-11-29 09:38:49 -0800:
When Disk Utility was finished, I clicked on “Clear History” and reran “Repair Disk Permissions.”
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Reading permissions database.
2008-11-29 09:42:01 -0800: Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800: Permissions repair complete
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
2008-11-29 10:00:19 -0800:
Now everything seems clear.
My question...
Why did I initially see:
2008-11-29 08:43:29 -0800: Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .
2008-11-29 08:48:26 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
and why after restarting should I end up with only
2008-11-29 09:38:47 -0800: Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
and after “Clear History” and rerunning Disk Utility why is everything clear until I start using the computer again?
I’ve had it explained that “Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26” is not meaningful, but I’d like to know WHY it happens. I’d also like to know why “ Permissions differ on "private/var/log/secure.log", should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r----- .” initially appears.
Thank you,
ZTIWYM3ZUI

As a casual "Apple Discussions" user it hadn't occurred to me that if a question had been answered previously, it should never be asked again.
It's not that. It's because the problem's been beaten to death over the past fourteen months, since Apple shipped Leopard, that most consider it common knowledge, no matter where one's been visiting or how often. Every Apple/Macintosh related website has addressed the never ending issue. Finally, since the forums Help file says:
*I have a question or issue—how do I search for answers?*
+It's possible that your question or issue has already been answered by other members so do a search before posting a question. On most Apple Discussions pages, you'll find a Search Discussions box in the upper right corner. Enter a search term (or terms) in the field and press Return. Your results will appear as a list of links to posts below the Search Discussions Content pane.+
+You can also refine your search by using the options in the Search Discussions Content pane. Click the Search Tips link for help with our search features. You can streamline your results by restricting your search terms by category or forum, specifying a date range, or searching for posts by username. You can also search the User Tips Library.+
Maybe that should be retitled: *+I have a question or issue—how do I resolve it?+*
Just out of curiosity, I wonder if any of these exceptional people can figure out my signature.
ZTIWYM3ZUI - "time is what you make—use it" or something of that nature.

Worried about need to constantly repair disk permissions

Here is my analysis and conclusions as to why I need to constantly repair disk permissions:
I recently got the top-o'-the-line iMac (see info below) which shipped with Lion but since I wanted Snow Leopard (just because I have a few PowerPC games that I can't live without) I reformatted the hard drive - into 1 partition from the 2 that Lion had - and installed Snow Leopard and went back to business as usual....only with one **** great and fast computer. BTW, as far as I know this computer is exactly the same computer that shipped with Snow Leopard prior to Lion's introduction. I swore that I would never get another desktop computer because this one would last me forever. My only hesitation now is because the need to constantly repair permissions means something is not right. On the one hand I could just keep on repairing (daily?) the permissions for the next 20 years, or.... what? Is it possible (or should I be asking Apple itself instead of in this forum) that there is some other difference between the Snow Leopard and the Lion versions of this iMac - is this what "firmware" is all about? - that produces this constant need to repair permissions? If that's the case, would Apple give me a Snow Leopard-friendly logic board (and/or install the correct firmware) in exchange for the Lion logic board - or am I just going to have to live with having to perform this permissions-update function? Or is having to repair disk permissions not a big deal or something worrying about? Any ideas would be appreciated - thanks!
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac12,2
Processor Name:          Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:          3.4 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per core):          256 KB
L3 Cache:          8 MB
Memory:          12 GB
Boot ROM Version:          IM121.0047.B0A
SMC Version (system):          1.72f2
Hardware UUID:          B9D5A82D-6205-5FDD-BE77-46CC72811374

You do not need to repair permissions unless there's a specific problem.
For your info;
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448

Failure to repair disk permissions

Hello fellow Mac users;
I really hope that someone here can help me with my issue.
I was doing some "spring cleaning" and deleted a whole bunch of unneeded files from my Mac, however I did not touch any system files!
When I restarted the Mac after all that it just showed the "thinking screen" the very first one with the Apple Symbol and it just "thought" for about 3 hours without bringing up the log in screen.
So I used my MAC OS X Installation Disk to get to the Disk Utility. I verified the disk and it said that the volume seemed to be okay. However when I tried to repair the disk permissions, I had a drop down window that said "permissions repair failure upon exit" and then in the main window it said the repair disk permissions was complete.
I'm scared now to try another restart and maybe crash my Mac totally! Help!!!
Thank you for any input!
Schnuckl

Hi,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I recommend saving all personal files including Address Book contacts, Mail accounts etc to an external disk or DVD immediately, at least for peace of mind should your system go down. Your cleaning exercise has likely caused an issue with installed receipts. Have a look in the folder Macintosh HD/Library/Receipts - all *.pkg installations (ie not those you drag-and-drop to install) store a receipt which tell OSX which permissions are required for the application. Disk Utility looks here when repairing permissions. If the names of your programs in /Library/Receipts are still present it's likely cleaning has corrupted the folders boms and db inside this directory. There is really only one option I personally would feel comfortable with, to perform a clean install (not archive and install) of OSX once I had saved my personal data. Don't bother backing up applications, those should all be clean installed as well on a fresh copy of OSX - if you need to remind yourself which 3rd party applications to reinstall afterwards, make a note beforehand including their serial numbers if licensed. If you own a paid-up .Mac account, goto System Preferences/.Mac/sync and select which essentials to back-up to your iDisk for convenient access following the reinstall.
I strongly advise against restarting your machine until you have saved everything you want to keep, should the worst happen.

HT1452 Should I repair disk permissions?

"Permissions differ" came up about 50 times after verifying disk permissions. Should I repair disk permissions?

As long as the report ends up with 'Permissions repair complete' then, as far as permissions go, you are fine. You can ignore the various statements in the report:
Permissions you can ignore on 10.5 onwards:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448
Using 'should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--' as an example, you will see the that the permissions are not changed, but the | indicates a different location. This is because an update to Leopard onwards changed the location of a number of system components.
Poster rccharles has provided this description of what it all means:
drwxrwxrwx
d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program
drwxrwxrwx
| | |
| | all other users not in first two types
| |
| group
|
owner
a little more info
Before the user had read & write. A member of the group had read.
After, only the user had read & write.
If you are running Panther or Tiger:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21090

Repair disk permissions for an external RAID drive?

Hello,
We are able to repair disk permissions on the hard drive, but can it be done on an external SCCI RAID drive? Is there software that is recommended that will repair and fix issues such as if the RAID drive was improperly removed without ejecting the drive? Or is that not needed?
Thanks,
Jordan

DiskWarrior repairs your directory, throws in some limited optimization (iPhoto's open in half the time is about all really), so if your "directory is out of order" it's not that big a deal really.
It's good to have on the shelf if you have a lot of Mac's, but ever since Tiger rolled around it seemed a lot of directory problems have disappeared on single user machines. It's pretty expensive for it's limited options.
With a RAID O (stripe) setup you should Disk Utility Erase w/Zero before setting up the RAID and laying data down. (in fact this is wise for all new drives at least once)
RAID O's should always be cloned (in the case of a boot RAID O) or backed up quite often because if one drive goes the whole set with data is lost.
Mirroring (RAID 1) is only necessary for extremely valuable one time data captures where a hard drive failure would be awlful. It doesn't make a good backup because any corruption, mistakes etc get immediatly written to the second drive.
Using automated cloning and backup software is better like (search Apple) DeJaVu. Auto clone the whole boot drive once a week and auto backup certain folders of files nightly.
Since cloning I haven't really too much need for drive maintainance software, if my RAID goes down for a data reason, (hasn't yet in 2 years of 24/7 operation) I simply option boot off the clone and repair/recover/reverse clone. I'm done in a hour, I even go out to eat or something while it's reverse cloning.
A good piece of software to have is (search Apple) OnyX, it's automation section will do a lot of cleanup and fixing certain things. Good to run it about once a month.
To find out more about cloning, visit Carbon Copy Cloner forums, they have donationware software too.

"Repair Disk Permissions" keeps showing the same permission differences

After the recent software updates, I suddenly cannot use my eFax Messenger. This happened once before, but I was able to fix the problem by running "Repair Disk Permissions" in Disk Utility.
This time "Repair Disk Permissions" did not fix the problem. Not only that, I noticed the same permission differences showing up again and again when I repeated Repair Disk Permissions.
Is the permissions database no longer accurate? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve the permission differences? I notice that others have reported similar issues on this forum, but no definite resolutions have been posted.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

..."As long as the repair ends up with the message 'repairs complete' or words to that effect, you are OK."...
I don't know who started with the "repairs complete means everything is fine" business, but they were wrong and it is repeated far too often by too many people on this site.
Considering all of the messages erroneously being dismissed as "informational", it is ironic that the one message that is actually just "informational" is the one being given special significance.
The "repairs complete" message only means that the process has stopped. Try starting to repair permissions, then immediately click the "Stop permissions repair" button. Try logging in to a non-admin account and start a run -- when a password is requested, cancel. Try repairing permissions when there are problems with the permissions database. You will see messages such as "Stopped by user", "insufficient privileges" or "underlying task reported failure on exit, but in every case, the report will end with the "Permissions repair complete" message.
With respect to the OP's question, the overall "repair permissions" system as it stands in 10.5 has the appearance of an unfinished product (it received major revisions in the transition from 10.4). Without specific details, all anyone can say is that the error messages are likely false positives - except for any true positives that might be present among them.

Repair disk permissions message

After running Repair disk permissions, it read:
Group differs on "private/etc/cups", should be 0, group is 26.
Anyone know what this means? Do I have a problem? I just bought this macbook today and so far, I love it. However, this message concerns me. Everytime I run permissions on my imac, I never get any kind of messages. Thanks.

Hello All,
My name is Harris and i am an Apple Store Genius.
This is a normal message and it is to be ignored. It will be completely fixed by 10.5.7. If it is not already fixed for some users.
Hope this helps,
~ Harris

Installing a trial version of the Illustrator and InDesign App in Creative Cloud on my Mac is impossible. Keep getting 'Installation failed' notices. More information gives 0 fatal error(s), 0 error(s). Already repaired disk permissions in Disk Utility bu

Installing a trial version of the Illustrator and InDesign App in Creative Cloud on my Mac is impossible. Keep getting 'Installation failed' notices. More information gives 0 fatal error(s), 0 error(s). Already repaired disk permissions in Disk Utility but nothing seems to work. Exit code: 7.

Hi Maarton,
Please follow the link to resolve the issue: Errors "Exit Code: 6," "Exit Code: 7" | CS5, CS5.5
-Ankit

Repair Disk Permissions taking 19 hours so far...

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