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anonymous limitations

1 <h1>ACL implementation in docman</h1>
2
3 <p>ACL implementation in docman is called <b>trustees</b>. It's based on
4 concept of trustees for Linux kernel by Vyacheslav Zavadsky
5 &lt;zavadsky@braysystems.com&gt;
6 </p>
7
8 <p>Trustees are used to control access right, and special features
9 (like <a href="notify.html">notify on change</a>)
10 </p>
11
12 <h2>Format of trustee file</h2>
13
14 <p>Comments are written using hash (#) as first character in line
15 <br><tt># this is a comment</tt></p>
16
17 <p>Group can be used instead of user-name in all ACL. You can't have user
18 which has same name as group or vice-versa. It's written using plus (+) as
19 first character in line.
20 <br>+<i>group</i>:<i>user</i>[,<i>user</i>...]</p>
21
22 <p>ACL is defined
23 <br><i>path</i>[<i>file</i>]<b>:</b>(<i>user</i>|<i>+group</i>|*)[,<i>user</i>...]:[<i>modifier</i>]<i>permission</i>[:...]</p>
24
25 Valid modifiers:
26 <ul>
27 <li><tt>!</tt> trustee applies to all except user or group
28 <li><tt>C</tt> clear the permission (default is to set)
29 <li><tt>D</tt> deny access (default is grant)
30 <li><tt>O</tt> one-level trustee only <small>(this means that those permissions
31 will not be inherited on directories and files downwards from current
32 level -- it's useful for <a href="#anonymous">anonymous access</a>)
33 </small>
34 </ul>
35
36 Valid permissions:
37 <ul>
38 <li><tt>R</tt> read (file)
39 <li><tt>W</tt> write (file)
40 <li><tt>B</tt> browse (directory)
41 <li><tt>N</tt> <a href="notify.html">notify</a> (e-mail change)
42 </ul>
43
44 <h2>Examples</h2>
45
46 <pre>
47 # dpavlin is administrator (grant all access to members of root group)
48 +root:dpavlin
49 /:root:RWB
50 # give read-only access to all users
51 /:*:R
52 # anyone can write in this file
53 /public_write.txt:*:w
54 # let just joe access secret file
55 /secret:joe:!CRW
56 </pre>
57
58 <p>There is major difference between <b>deny</b> and <b>clear</b>. If you
59 want to deny access to one file except to use joe (which should have
60 read-only access) you could write:
61
62 <pre>
63 /secret.txt:*:DRWB:joe:R
64 </pre>
65
66 That is wrong. <b>deny</b> rules will take precedence over allow read
67 to joe. So, you should write:
68
69 <pre>
70 /secret.txt:*:CRWB:joe:R
71 </pre>
72
73 Which will work.
74
75 <big>FIX</big> write more examples, better descriptions...
76
77 <a name="anonymous">
78 <h3>Anonymous access</h3>
79
80 <p>One of great advantages of using trustees is that you can allow
81 anonymous access (without login). You should pay attention to access
82 right, because you probably don't want anonymous users to see all files
83 or folders in your repository.
84 </p>
85
86 <p>First, you will have to add browse trustee to anonymous user
87 on root directory -- docman will ignore all anonymous users if
88 you don't do this.
89 <pre>
90 /:anonymous:BO
91 </pre>
92 You really <b>want to use flags <tt>BO</tt></b> and not just <tt>B</tt> because
93 if you specify just <tt>B</tt> anonymous users will be able to browse (see
94 directory names) of your whole repository. This way you can explicitly
95 allow (or deny) which sub-directories you want anonymous users to browse.
96 <br>For example, this will allow anonymous users to see and read everything
97 in <tt>/pub</tt> and to store documents in <tt>/incoming</tt>:
98 <pre>
99 /pub:anonymous:RB
100 /incoming:anonymous:RWB
101 </pre>
102 You might also want to hide some directory from anonymous users, and you
103 can do that using:
104 <pre>
105 /private:anonymous:DB
106 </pre>
107 If you would like to <b>give all your users</b> which are authetificated via
108 login and password <b>all access</b> to all files (like in old docman v1.x) you
109 also have to add
110 <pre>
111 /:*:RWB
112 </pre>
113 However, that <b>will not add all
114 permission to anonymous users</b>. If you want to add all that permission
115 to anonymous users (which will create wiki-like comunity for sharing files)
116 you must explicitly say that you allow that to anonymous users:
117 <pre>
118 /:anonymous:RWB
119 </pre>
120 All those setting will create enviroment which is very like docman v1.x,
121 but with anonymous users allowed to see document in <tt>/pub</tt> and
122 upload them in <tt>/incoming</tt>.
123 </p>
124
125 <h2>Default security</h2>
126
127 <p>If none of trustee rules satisfy, default policy is <i>deny</i>. Basically,
128 you have to explicitly allow all your users access to files (which can be
129 as simple as <tt>/:*:RB</tt> to give <i>read</i> and <i>browse</i> to all
130 users)
131 </p>
132
133 <h2>docman without trustee configuration</h2>
134
135 <p>If you <b>don't have</b> <tt>realm/http_virtual_host.trustee</tt> you
136 will fall-back to default docman v1.x behavior: whole group will have
137 all right on all files except <i>anonymous</i> users (which won't be able
138 to login anyway).
139 </p>
140
141 <p>See also:
142 <a href="admin.html">Administration manual</a>
143 </p>

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