(Dist) chutils command

Use the chutils command to set the file ownership and permissions for an entire installation to an owner or group that differs from the user that performed the initial installation.

Considerations and limitations:

• The chutils command delivered with WebSphere Application Server v8.0 and later will not work for WAS v7 and earlier installations; and the chutils command delivered with WAS v7 and earlier will not work for WAS v8.0 and later installations.
• (Windows) The chutils command is not available on Windows operating systems.

• The chutils command should be run by a root user.

• The chutils command can be run using multiple options at once.

• We cannot use the chutils command to modify permissions for directories that are parents of of app_server_root.

  If app_server_root is in User A's home directory and the root user uses chutils to change the ownership of app_server_root to User B, for example, app_server_root might still be inaccessible to User B because it is still a subdirectory of User A's home directory.

• We cannot use the chutils command to modify permissions for owner or world, although group permissions can be elevated to match owner permissions.

The chutils command is located in the following directory:

app_server_root/instutils

Syntax

The chutils command syntax is as follows:

chutils.sh
  -installlocation=installation_directory
  -setowner=user_name
  -setgroup=group_name
  -setmod=[reset | grp2owner | patchperm]
  -help
  -debug

Parameters

The following options are available for the chutils command:

-installlocation=installation_directory

Absolute path to the installation root directory

Required unless we are currently in app_server_root.

-setowner=user_name

Set the owner for each file and directory to an existing user

-setgroup=group_name

Set the group for each file and directory to an existing group

-setmod=[reset | grp2owner | patchperm]

Set the permissions on the files and directories

• reset

  Resets the owner, group, and other permissions to the default value of 755

• grp2owner

  Sets the group permission to match the owner permissions

  Limitation: Do not use chutils -setmod=grp2owner to set permissions to update the product with a fix pack using group mode. In this case, use chutils -setowner=user_name.

• patchperm

  Does nothing in WAS v8.0 and later

-help

Display the help

-debug

Display additional runtime information

Related:

Set file permissions