permissions repair

[Theoyster]

When using the disk utility is it normal to see weird pernissions errors such as:

user differs on ., should be 0, owner is 501

Thanks

 

[satcomer]

To properly fix issues on your Mac you either must run a repair from another disk on from the install disk. If the error is no a system files it won't be able to fix the problem. Booting from a cloned disk or and install disk and running Disk Utility should be done to completely fix problems.

 

[Hellhammer]

It's normal. Those are just shown as information, don't worry about them

 

[Hal Itosis]

To properly fix issues on your Mac you either must run a repair from another disk on from the install disk. If the error is no a system files it won't be able to fix the problem. Booting from a cloned disk or and install disk and running Disk Utility should be done to completely fix problems.

That is totally false... and in fact it is *preferable* to be booted from the same volume/OS on which the permissions repairs are being done.

You may be thinking of disk repair (directory structure, catalog file, extents, etc.), because —in that case —booting from another volume is necessary, for repairs to take place. But not so with permissions.

See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1452 (and also this User Tip by Mark Douma, for a deeper explanation).


<edit>

Having said all that . . .

It's normal. Those are just shown as information, don't worry about them

Depending on the message shown, some of the reports Disk Utility produces during permissions repair these days is unfortunately misinformation (caused by a software update bug introduced in Leopard and still not sufficiently eradicated in Snow Leopard).

</edit>

 

[GGJstudios]

To properly fix issues on your Mac you either must run a repair from another disk on from the install disk. If the error is no a system files it won't be able to fix the problem. Booting from a cloned disk or and install disk and running Disk Utility should be done to completely fix problems.

From the link that Hal Itosis posted:

When possible, disk permissions should be repaired while started up from a Mac OS X volume (hard disk) that contains Mac OS X, instead of a Mac OS X installation disc.