Linux, Why can't I write even though I have group permissions?

Question

I want to create a file in a directory owned by the staff group which I am a member of. Why can I not do this?

bmccann@bmccann-htpc:~$ ls -l /usr/local/lib/R/
t         


        

Answer 1

I had the same issue, check if the folder has any more ACL rules or not!

If you can see + (plus sign) when you list folder, that means it has special access rules. For example:

[user_in_apache_group@web02 html]$ ls -l
total 16
drwxrwxr-x  16 apache apache 4096 Sep  4 13:46 ilias
drwxrwxr-x+ 15 apache apache 4096 Sep  4 13:46 ilias5

View the permission:

[user_in_apache_group@web02 html] getfacl ilias5
# file: ilias5
# owner: apache
# group: apache
user::rwx
user:user_in_apache_group:r-x
group::rwx
mask::rwx
other::r-x

So that means my user (user_in_apache_group) has no write permission for that folder.

The solution is what @techtonik said, add write permission for user:

[user_in_apache_group@web02 html]$ sudo setfacl -m u:user_in_apache_group:rwx ./ilias5

Check permission again:

[user_in_apache_group@web02 html] getfacl ilias5
...
user:user_in_apache_group:rwx
...

Hope it helps. ;)