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Bug #42711 Unable to chown/chgrp of a symlink
Submitted: 2007-09-19 14:17 UTC Modified: 2007-09-19 19:51 UTC
Votes:1
Avg. Score:5.0 ± 0.0
Reproduced:1 of 1 (100.0%)
Same Version:0 (0.0%)
Same OS:0 (0.0%)
From: arnaud dot lb at gmail dot com Assigned:
Status: Not a bug Package: Filesystem function related
PHP Version: 5.2.4 OS: Linux
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2007-09-19 14:17 UTC] arnaud dot lb at gmail dot com
Description:
------------
There is no way to change the owner or group of a symlink.

Using chown and chgrp functions on a symlink affect the file 
referenced by the symbolic link, rather than the symbolic link 
itself.

There should have a "$dereference" argument to be able to affect the 
file referenced by the symlink or the symlink itself.

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
// Setup test files
if (file_exists('test-referent')) unlink('test-referent');
if (file_exists('test-symlink')||is_link('test-symlink')) unlink('test-symlink');
touch('test-referent');
symlink('test-referent', 'test-symlink');
echo shell_exec('chown -h nobody test-symlink test-referent 2>&1');

echo "Original owners: \n";
echo shell_exec("ls -l test-referent test-symlink") . "\n";

// Test changing symlink owner with PHP's chown() function

chown('test-symlink', 'root');

echo "New owners: \n";
echo shell_exec("ls -l test-referent test-symlink");
?>

Expected result:
----------------
chown should affect symlink owner instead of the referenced file

Original owners:
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody root  0 2007-09-19 16:04 test-referent
lrwxrwxrwx 1 nobody root 13 2007-09-19 16:04 test-symlink -> 
test-referent

New owners:
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody   root  0 2007-09-19 16:04 test-referent
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2007-09-19 16:04 test-symlink -> 
test-referent

Actual result:
--------------
chown has affected the referenced file instead of the symlink itself

Original owners:
-rw-r--r-- 1 nobody root  0 2007-09-19 16:04 test-referent
lrwxrwxrwx 1 nobody root 13 2007-09-19 16:04 test-symlink -> 
test-referent

New owners:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root  0 2007-09-19 16:04 test-referent
lrwxrwxrwx 1 nobody root 13 2007-09-19 16:04 test-symlink -> 
test-referent

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 [2007-09-19 19:51 UTC] iliaa@php.net
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php

You need to use the lchown() function.
 
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