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Modified By

anew

Does anyone have a utility or a DOS command to change the modified by attrib on a WINDOWS file? We'd like to reset that attribute to a user id vs. SYSTEM after a file has been modifed by an external task.

Thanks in advance

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Migrateduser

Does anyone have a utility or a DOS command to change the modified by attrib on a WINDOWS file? We'd like to reset that attribute to a user id vs. SYSTEM after a file has been modifed by an external task.

Thanks in advance

Do you mean that you want to change Modified By value from SYSTEM to a user id?

-Dixit

Sailesh

Does anyone have a utility or a DOS command to change the modified by attrib on a WINDOWS file? We'd like to reset that attribute to a user id vs. SYSTEM after a file has been modifed by an external task.

Thanks in advance

YOu have to update the file again, this time with that user as owner.

kaalraa

Does anyone have a utility or a DOS command to change the modified by attrib on a WINDOWS file? We'd like to reset that attribute to a user id vs. SYSTEM after a file has been modifed by an external task.

Thanks in advance

Are you providing the task owner as the owner of external task. Check if it been sucessfully passed thru workflow to the task? Else use setOwner().

Migrateduser

Ideally External tasks which manipulate other files and perform system operations like making files/directories, deleting them and other stuff, must have the Task Owner as SYSTEM for windows and root for UNIX, this will handle the access and permission issues.

If the owner of your task is a user then, you might end up in a situation where the user does not have enough permissions or priviledges to perform certain activities. So one need to take care of the permissions etc when ext. task's owner is a User.

In your case you can set a user id as the owner of the external task, just keep in mind that the User must have the appropriate permissions for the activities being performed in the external task.

-Dixit

kaalraa

I give a second to Dixit... as permissions must be checked for al the activities to be performed within and external task.

anew

Thanks for all the responses.

I understand about setting the the Task Owner. That's not an issue. The use case that I am trying to solve is simple and can even be outside the scope of a workflow.

Use Case:

There is a file with the modified by attrib set to "SYSTEM". I want to change that modified by attrib on that file to "iwov\anew".

Are there any utils to do this, be it a DOS command or other utility? This is rather easy to do on a Unix box with the 'chown' command. I'm trying to find a similar utility for a Windows server.

Is there a 'touch' command in Windows?

ISCBorisB

Are there any utils to do this, be it a DOS command or other utility? This is rather easy to do on a Unix box with the 'chown' command. I'm trying to find a similar utility for a Windows server.

Is there a 'touch' command in Windows?

No. Windows does not have chmod, chown, touch, umask... and all this Unix bestiary.
GNUWin has some of those if you are allowed to install it.

Depending on your server you may try cacls, xcacls and subinacl (last two are from Win Resource Kit, talk to your System Administrator about making it available)

Valentine

Ideally External tasks which manipulate other files and perform system operations like making files/directories, deleting them and other stuff, must have the Task Owner as SYSTEM for windows and root for UNIX, this will handle the access and permission issues.

If the owner of your task is a user then, you might end up in a situation where the user does not have enough permissions or priviledges to perform certain activities. So one need to take care of the permissions etc when ext. task's owner is a User.

In your case you can set a user id as the owner of the external task, just keep in mind that the User must have the appropriate permissions for the activities being performed in the external task.

-Dixit

whoa. external tasks as root. Never ever I would do this.

Migrateduser

whoa. external tasks as root. Never ever I would do this.

Everyone has a different perspective, the way they develop solutions and the ways they adhere to security policies. Maybe I am wrong in stating the owner of external task as root in UNIX perspective. But i am sure in Windows it is preferable to run the external task as SYSTEM.

Regards
Dixit

MultiLineRowExtendTableToFitPage.rptdesign

ISCBorisB

But i am sure in Windows it is preferable to run the external task as SYSTEM

Granted, security requirements differ for different projects. External task running as SYSTEM is rarely beneficial though.
Proper setting of Files' "Owned By" and "Modified By" attributes is the critical issue here. Unfortunately we have no choice.
TeamSite externaltasks on Windows OS run as SYSTEM regardless of which user has been set as the task owner. And that is
almost always a serious problem

Migrateduser

TeamSite externaltasks on Windows OS run as SYSTEM regardless of which user has been set as the task owner. And that is
almost always a serious problem

I hadn't observed that because according to the notes from my training i found that in Windows external task owner must be kept as System. I have used this concept before too.

Now if we come back to the original Post in this thread, If we want the Modified by attribute set as the Task owner, ---- This cannot be achieved? as in WINDOWS regardless of the task owner the external task runs as SYSTEM. Is the conclusion correct?

-Dixit

ISCBorisB

I hadn't observed that because according to the notes from my training i found that in Windows external task owner must be kept as System. I have used this concept before too.

Now if we come back to the original Post in this thread, If we want the Modified by attribute set as the Task owner, ---- This cannot be achieved? as in WINDOWS regardless of the task owner the external task runs as SYSTEM. Is the conclusion correct?

-Dixit

That is correct - unfortunately. See for example here

Migrateduser

That is correct - unfortunately. See for example here

Thanks for the link. However digging more into this, what may be the issue that prevents Interwoven to take care of this?

-Dixit

ISCBorisB

Thanks for the link. However digging more into this, what may be the issue that prevents Interwoven to take care of this?

-Dixit

You'd have to ask Interwoven. I think (but not sure) that there is a FR for it.

beez

TeamSite 6.7.x supports external tasks running as the task owner. Have you considered upgrading?

Beez

ISCBorisB

TeamSite 6.7.x supports external tasks running as the task owner...

Regardless of the task owner effective UID of WF External task process in Windows is SYSTEM.
To the best of my knowledge 6.7 is no exception. That said, I personally did not test in Windows 6.7.x.
Are you talking from personal experience?

Also, it is a good practice to reply to the person who asked the question. I am not the one.

Migrateduser

Thanks for all the responses.

I understand about setting the the Task Owner. That's not an issue. The use case that I am trying to solve is simple and can even be outside the scope of a workflow.

Use Case:

There is a file with the modified by attrib set to "SYSTEM". I want to change that modified by attrib on that file to "iwov\anew".

Are there any utils to do this, be it a DOS command or other utility? This is rather easy to do on a Unix box with the 'chown' command. I'm trying to find a similar utility for a Windows server.

Is there a 'touch' command in Windows?

Have you try using Microsoft Services for Unix?
It will give you chmod, chown, etc on windows.

We use it over here with not problem.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/default.mspx

PS: It has limited capabilities. So make sure you test it properly first.

anew

Have you try using Microsoft Services for Unix?
It will give you chmod, chown, etc on windows.

We use it over here with not problem.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/interopmigration/unix/sfu/default.mspx

PS: It has limited capabilities. So make sure you test it properly first.

I'm a little confused, what you said above makes sense, integrating unix commands into a Windows environment, but the link you sent does the reverse, it integrates Windows into an existing Unix environment.

Am I missing something?

beez

Regardless of the task owner effective UID of WF External task process in Windows is SYSTEM.
To the best of my knowledge 6.7 is no exception. That said, I personally did not test in Windows 6.7.x.
Are you talking from personal experience?

Duh. You really should give 6.7 a try.

ISCBorisB

Duh. You really should give 6.7 a try.

Duh. You really should read IWOV article I've indicated above (All TeamSite Files Become Modified by SYSTEM in TeamSite, 2006-12-13).