command to check if a user can edit a file

Is there a command that will tell me if the user has edit rights to a file?

For example, when the user does not have edit rights to a file, the edit link on TS interface is faded. I want to implement a similar functionality and suspect there must be some way to do it.

Any idea on how TS interface achieves this?

Thanks.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

ISCBorisB

Is there a command that will tell me if the user has edit rights to a file?

For example, when the user does not have edit rights to a file, the edit link on TS interface is faded. I want to implement a similar functionality and suspect there must be some way to do it.

Any idea on how TS interface achieves this?

Thanks.

Depends on the tools you are using. For example, in Perl you can use so called "File test operators":
-r -w -x check that the File is readable/writable/executable by effective uid/gid.
-R -W -X check that the File is readable/writable/executable by real uid/gid.

Then for CGI output you can generate either a link or a string formatted with proper CSS Class to grey it out, etc...

moulikk

Thanks for the response.

The problem with using perl to do this is:
I'm running a script from webpage, the program is run under a different user name there. The -w option does not allow me to check if a particular user can write to the file, only whether the current user can edit the file.

ISCBorisB

The problem with using perl is...

Your issue is not Perl specific, you'll have it in any language whatever.

AFAIK, mechanisms to figure somebody else access credentials are often OS Specific and require
that the Process that is trying to obtain this information has itself (with it's effective UID) pretty
high level of access

moulikk

Yes, that is why I was wondering if TS had a command for this. Since on the interface, TS fades the edit link for any user who does not have editor/author permission for a particular workarea, they achieve this same thing but I'm wondering how?

ISCBorisB

Since on the interface, TS fades the edit link for any user who does not have editor/author permission...

Interwoven communicates to iwserver through proprietary API. TS Servlets can do a lot of things that you (TS Developer) can't.

This API has been partially exposed to CMS Developers with the introduction of CSSDK. Check the Documentation for your version of CSSDK,
see if there is anything there that can help you. If there is (I doubt it), write a Servlet and call it with the Target UID Parameter
right from your Page. Frankly, I think you are SOL.