Help with permissions: Locking Folders

[Erendiox]

Well i've been looking around for a way to lock folders in OSX. I've searched through the forums and gotten a few idea from people. The whole disk image thing seemed like too much of a hassle, and many of the third party apps either cost money, or could only lock specific files. Then, I stumbled upon this:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031127154430809&query=password+protect+folders

Seemed like a simple and effective way to get the job done, so I figured i'd give it a try. I click over to my ichats folder, which held all the logs of my aim conversations. Definitely something I wouldn't mind having locked. Go into info, go to details, and change the owner to system. It promps for password as expected, then the folder becomes locked and says I dont have sufficient privilages to access. Perfect I said. Only then I went over to unlock the folder and it doesn't seem to want to let me. I changed the owner back over to my user name and it seems to just ignore me. I don't know what i'm doing wrong. Anyone else tried this? At this point, locking folders can wait. I just kinda want my ichats folder back.

 

[Erendiox]

Nobody?

 

[munkle]

Have you tried the ol' repairing permissions via disk utility?

 

[petej]

I'm guessing you are using tiger. Changing owner on folders has been a nightmare for me with tiger and the File info panel. Like you say, it just keeps bouncing back. What is strange though is that it does change on the file itself but the info does correctly reflect this. In the end, I gave up on the info and used the good ol' terminal to apply the permissions and ownerships. Repair permisissions is of no use to you in this situation.
The unix commands that are of use to you in the terminal are chown to change the owner, and chmod to change permissions.
type man chown for help on the chown command.

but

chown (newuser) (filename)

you may need to use sudo to get extra permissions.