How To Create Dir Without Upsetting SELinux?

[eric]

Hello,

I need to create a directory that is not under /home and that is read-write accessible to a non-privileged user. Can someone please tell me where on the filesystem I should put this directory, and how I should label it, so that SELinux doesn't complain?

Let's call the user joe. I tried creating /joe and chown-ing it to joe. joe goes there and builds software which is installed to a subdirectory of /joe. This kicks off various warning bells in SeLinux.

The initial SELinux warnings related to having a directory with a default label under /. Without understanding what I'm doing I tried relabeling /joe from default_t to usr_t, that let to other warnings. An example of a current error message, when joe does 'make install', with the target directory a subdirectory of /joe, SELinux says "SELinux is preventing /sbin/ldconfig (ldconfig_t) "read" to (usr_t)."

I don't want to get into the guts of SELinux or do anything fancy. I just want a directory somewhere on the filesystem other than /home where joe can read/write without triggering SELinux warnings. Where should this directory go and how should it be labelled?

Many Thanks,
Eric

[Zero-Override]

well the problem with installing things is that it installs stuff system-wide, to convert it to a windows situation, if i install a music program it will put several stuff in /windows/system32 to operate, same goes for any other program

you could try installing stuff with a prefix maybe?

[ongola]

Hello eric,
i'll just try to give you some advices...
First of all, what exactly do you want to do ? why do you need a directory for joe outside /home ?
I suggest that you read a bit this document on the linux filesystem hierarchy . You'll have a better understanding of the way directories are labelled and their roles (in any linux distribution you may have).
I think it's a bad idea to create a directory directly under the '/' . So many directories have been already created during the installation. You should just go to the right directories according to your target.

[eric]

Hi ongola,

Many thanks for getting back to me.

Originally Posted by ongola

First of all, what exactly do you want to do ?

I want to provide a directory under which joe can build and install software.

Originally Posted by ongola

why do you need a directory for joe outside /home ?

1) /home is nfs-mounted. If joe builds sofware there, all read-write operations are performed across the network, which is slow. I want joe's build/install environment on the local hard disk.
2) /home is backed up. joe's build/install environment is huge and does not need to be backed up.

Originally Posted by ongola

I suggest that you read a bit this document on the linux filesystem hierarchy . You'll have a better understanding of the way directories are labelled and their roles (in any linux distribution you may have).

I'm already familiar with that info.

Originally Posted by ongola

I think it's a bad idea to create a directory directly under the '/' .

Me too.

Originally Posted by ongola

So many directories have been already created during the installation. You should just go to the right directories according to your target.

What's the right directory?

Thanks,
Eric

[Dies]

Originally Posted by ongola

I think it's a bad idea to create a directory directly under the '/' .

Can you please explain why, or what difference you think it makes?


Sorry eric, not trying to hijack your thread, just curious.

[ongola]

Originally Posted by eric

1) /home is nfs-mounted. If joe builds sofware there, all read-write operations are performed across the network, which is slow. I want joe's build/install environment on the local hard disk.
2) /home is backed up. joe's build/install environment is huge and does not need to be backed up.

Well, i think that you can use the /opt directory and build necessary directories under it like /opt/lib,/opt/doc, /opt/include, /opt/bin, ... By using /opt , you can even insert soft links to file located under /usr/lib for example .
However, this is not the best advice as far i'm not an experienced user. I'm strongly convinced that you should use /home. Can't you create a subfolder in /home/joe and map it with your nfs-mounted partition ?

Originally Posted by dies

Can you please explain why, or what difference you think it makes?

At least for one reason... Keep order in your room; respect of standards. Do you think that linux and open source would have been what you have today without standards ?
In addition, in my own case i found all the directories provided by the system fitted well my needs.
It's also a matter of security....
At last, you are the owner of the box and you are free to do want YOU want to do.

[Dies]

Originally Posted by ongola

At least for one reason... Keep order in your room; respect of standards. Do you think that linux and open source would have been what you have today without standards ?
In addition, in my own case i found all the directories provided by the system fitted well my needs.
It's also a matter of security....
At last, you are the owner of the box and you are free to do want YOU want to do.

Hmm... not really the type of response I was hoping for.

But yeah, thanks anyways.

[Zero-Override]

Originally Posted by ongola

At last, you are the owner of the box and you are free to do want YOU want to do.

this on it's own is one of the foremost reasons i love linux so much, I'M the f'ing admin and i want to be treated as such, if i say kill the process then i don't want it to care about what else relies on that process and then deny me my freaking rights, i want it to do what i told it to, to kill the process!!

i think that when they designed linux in general they finally thought about the user first instead of the system, in everything i have seen from linux the user is the king, i want something to look or act different, i can do that, if i don't want something present, i can delete it, hell, if i want to delete de entire / or /root while i'm still logged in... it won't even ask if i'm sure