Find files in Mac OS X by permissions setting?

Question

I recently needed to restore my Mac (10.6.8 v1.1) from a backup and while the machine is stable and intact, a scattering of files have incorrect permissions in my user account which is interfering with some operations.

I have looked through directories manually in the Finder and corrected those I have seen but I would like to search the user directory for files whose permissions does not include me (admin).

Is there a tool or command that searches a directory on the basis of a permissions setting in this way?

Answer 1

Open Terminal.app and enter the following to find all files you are not the owner of:

find ~ ! -user danielbeck

(If your username is danielbeck — run whoami to find out your user name)

You can use the -group groupname argument similarly, but you should be the owner of most files in your home directory first to have everything work well.

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Or, to make you the owner of all files in your home directory:

sudo chown -R danielbeck ~

I don't recommend this if you use FileVault. It's a bit of a sledgehammer method. Try searching first.