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I have a general question about the UNIX world. I am currently running Ubuntu at home and installed transmission on a device and it runs as and saves files as transmission-debian user. I am wondering if it makes sense for me to change this to my own user so it easier to interact with files and I don't need to sudo? Why would this be a bad idea to do?

ubuntu files users transmission

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1

I have a general question about the UNIX world. I am currently running Ubuntu at home and installed transmission on a device and it runs as and saves files as transmission-debian user. I am wondering if it makes sense for me to change this to my own user so it easier to interact with files and I don't need to sudo? Why would this be a bad idea to do?

ubuntu files users transmission

share|improve this question

edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

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asked 2 hours ago

ScipioAfricanusScipioAfricanus

622 bronze badges

New contributor

ScipioAfricanus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

add a comment | 

I have a general question about the UNIX world. I am currently running Ubuntu at home and installed transmission on a device and it runs as and saves files as transmission-debian user. I am wondering if it makes sense for me to change this to my own user so it easier to interact with files and I don't need to sudo? Why would this be a bad idea to do?

ubuntu files users transmission

share|improve this question

edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

47.6k1111 gold badges6969 silver badges154154 bronze badges

asked 2 hours ago

ScipioAfricanusScipioAfricanus

622 bronze badges

New contributor

ScipioAfricanus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

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asked 2 hours ago

ScipioAfricanusScipioAfricanus

622 bronze badges

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ScipioAfricanus is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

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asked 2 hours ago

ScipioAfricanusScipioAfricanus

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edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

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edited 1 min ago

Jeff Schaller♦

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asked 2 hours ago

ScipioAfricanusScipioAfricanus

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asked 2 hours ago

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The main reason for the recommendation of running Transmission as its own dedicated system user rather than your user is that, if the software has a vulnerability that allows exploits that will expose files outside of its configured directory, then it will not end up exposing the possibly sensitive files from your home directory, since Linux itself will prevent that kind of access through the basic permissions.

In order to make it easier to manage the files in Transmission's directory with your regular user, you should consider adding your user to the debian-transmission group, which is the group that owns the files in the Transmission directory, and has (or at least should have) read/write access to that directory and the files within it.

The Ubuntu howto suggests this command (slightly adapted to get your user from an environment variable):

sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission "$USER"

Hopefully this will make it easier for you to manage the files downloaded with Transmission, while still keeping it running under its own dedicated system user, for better security.

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answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

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4

The main reason for the recommendation of running Transmission as its own dedicated system user rather than your user is that, if the software has a vulnerability that allows exploits that will expose files outside of its configured directory, then it will not end up exposing the possibly sensitive files from your home directory, since Linux itself will prevent that kind of access through the basic permissions.

In order to make it easier to manage the files in Transmission's directory with your regular user, you should consider adding your user to the debian-transmission group, which is the group that owns the files in the Transmission directory, and has (or at least should have) read/write access to that directory and the files within it.

The Ubuntu howto suggests this command (slightly adapted to get your user from an environment variable):

sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission "$USER"

Hopefully this will make it easier for you to manage the files downloaded with Transmission, while still keeping it running under its own dedicated system user, for better security.

share|improve this answer

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

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add a comment | 

4

The main reason for the recommendation of running Transmission as its own dedicated system user rather than your user is that, if the software has a vulnerability that allows exploits that will expose files outside of its configured directory, then it will not end up exposing the possibly sensitive files from your home directory, since Linux itself will prevent that kind of access through the basic permissions.

In order to make it easier to manage the files in Transmission's directory with your regular user, you should consider adding your user to the debian-transmission group, which is the group that owns the files in the Transmission directory, and has (or at least should have) read/write access to that directory and the files within it.

The Ubuntu howto suggests this command (slightly adapted to get your user from an environment variable):

sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission "$USER"

Hopefully this will make it easier for you to manage the files downloaded with Transmission, while still keeping it running under its own dedicated system user, for better security.

share|improve this answer

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

12.3k22 gold badges2222 silver badges5252 bronze badges

add a comment | 

The main reason for the recommendation of running Transmission as its own dedicated system user rather than your user is that, if the software has a vulnerability that allows exploits that will expose files outside of its configured directory, then it will not end up exposing the possibly sensitive files from your home directory, since Linux itself will prevent that kind of access through the basic permissions.

In order to make it easier to manage the files in Transmission's directory with your regular user, you should consider adding your user to the debian-transmission group, which is the group that owns the files in the Transmission directory, and has (or at least should have) read/write access to that directory and the files within it.

The Ubuntu howto suggests this command (slightly adapted to get your user from an environment variable):

sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission "$USER"

Hopefully this will make it easier for you to manage the files downloaded with Transmission, while still keeping it running under its own dedicated system user, for better security.

share|improve this answer

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

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sudo usermod -a -G debian-transmission "$USER"

share|improve this answer

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

12.3k22 gold badges2222 silver badges5252 bronze badges

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

12.3k22 gold badges2222 silver badges5252 bronze badges

answered 44 mins ago

filbrandenfilbranden

12.3k22 gold badges2222 silver badges5252 bronze badges