a python program that runs under cron failed the other day because of file permissions. I checked and something had changed the users to NOBODY and NOGROUP. I thought about it for a bit and the only thing I can think of is that I copied the file using Windoze 7 file explorer and it did something strange. I am a noob on this stuff so could someone please help me? I changed the file permissions back but I would like to stop Windoze 7 file explorer doing this in the future. Any help would be appreciated
I think you need to check the files permission settings in Winblows before you copy files over?. 
Basically taking out any restrictions on the file(s) by right click > properties > take out “write protection”. 
thanks wolfman I’ll do that. Not sure why this just started happening. Ho hum another little tweak to my day 
thanks again and have an excellent weekend
1 Like
It may depend in the file system too. If it was copied to one that lacks permissons (eg. FAT32) or do not handle Unix file permissions the same way (NTFS), then this might of caused that file to “reset” ownership when copied back to Ubuntu.
If you would like to perserve file permissions across a file system like a USB stick, compress the files into a tar archive instead.
thanks Lah7 I think that is what I did. The file in question (csv) was created by the Linux system. I pulled it over to my Windows Machine via File Manager to massage it in LibreOriface on windoze ( all my windoze machines are NTFS though) then copied it back via File manager. SO my solution is to NOT use windoze at all BUT to take note of what both you and Wolfman pointed out. Thanks to both for helping and have an excellent weekend.
2 Likes