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--- rdms:data:permissions [2025/12/11 13:56] – [Inheritance] reworked text and added example use case giulio
+++ rdms:data:permissions [2026/01/15 14:49] (current) – formatting giulio
@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 Permission inheritance means that the permissions set on a folder are also propagated to its subfolders and files. If permission inheritance is activated, newly created files and folders inherit the permission of the main folder.
-By default, permission inheritance is active within the RDMS for [[rdms:solution:team|RDMS Team Drives]] and [[rdms:solution:projects|RDMS Projects]], but it can also be disabled by the user. To do so, you need to right-click the folder where you would like to turn permission inheritance off and select the highlighted menu item (see "future" screenshot).
+By default, permission inheritance is active within the RDMS for [[rdms:solution:team|RDMS Team Drives]] and [[rdms:solution:projects|RDMS Projects]], but it can also be disabled by the user. To do so, you need to right-click the folder where you would like to turn permission inheritance off and select the highlighted menu item:
-If you decide to disable permission inheritance, you should be aware that this means that permissions on all (sub)folders and files have to be set individually.
+{{ :rdms:data:set_inheritance_1.png?direct&600 |}}
-Also, it should be noted that it is also possible to modify user permissions on specific subfolders or files when permission inheritance is activated on the main folder.
+If you decide to disable permission inheritance, you will have to manually set the permissions on all (sub)folders and files contained in the folder where permission inheritance is turned off.
-In order to make this concept clearer, we are going to describe a general use case and show what happens when permission inheritance are turned on or off. Please bear in mind that we will be considering a basic set up, but that for more complex cases the effect of permission inheritance might not be immediately straightforward.
+Please note that you can modify user permissions on specific subfolders or files even when permission inheritance is activated on the main folder. Having permission inheritance activated is meant to help you by automatically setting the permissions of **new files and folders**. It does not prevent you from changing them afterwards, should you need different permissions on specific files or folders.
-**General Use Case**: User A uploads a file to folder in their Team Drive. The destination folder has three RDMS users with permissions: User A has Write permissions, User B has Own permissions, User C has Read permissions. User A is the one generating the data. User C acts as a reviewer of the data, instead. Finally, User B is the user responsible for the project.
+**Important Note:** The RDMS considers a file or folder **new** if you **upload** it to the RDMS or if you **copy** it from an existing RDMS location. A file or folder is **not** considered **new** if you **move** it from an existing RDMS location. In this second case, you will need to manually modify the permissions on the file or folder. We recommend you verify the permissions assigned to a file or folder after you moved it to a new location, regardless of whether permission inheritance is enabled or disabled.
-==== Example: Permission Inheritance - ON ====
+To display things more easily, we decided to use the CLI client [[..:access:linux:icommands|iCommands]] in the examples below. Please note that the behavior of the RDMS regarding permission inheritance is the same if the user uploads their data another way (e.g. [[..:access:windows:cyberduck|Cyberduck]] or [[..:access:windows:winscp|WinSCP]]). If you use Cyberduck or WinSCP to upload data to the RDMS, you can check or adjust permission inheritance either via iCommands or via the RDMS web interface.
-User A uploads the file. User A has now Write permission on the file, so User A is now unable to change the permissions on the file. User A retains the ability to modify the file. In the Team Drive, both User B and User C can now see the uploaded file. User C is able to view the file, but not much else. User B has now ownership of the file, so they can change permissions on the file, if needed. User B can now also rename and delete the file, along with modifying it.
+<code>
+# This is the folder with enabled inheritance that we use as destination. Note the permissions set on this folder (the part after 'ACL').
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance
+        ACL - teamdrive-owner@rug.nl#rug:own   rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:modify_object   g:Test_Team#rug:modify_object
+        Inheritance - Enabled
-==== Example: Permission Inheritance - OFF ====
+# First, we we will show what happens if we copy the folder to the destination with enabled inheritance.
+$ icp -r folder_test /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance
-User A uploads the file. User A obtains Own permission on the file, since they uploaded it. In the Team Drive, both User B and User C **cannot** see the file. Effectively for them, nothing changed in the Team Drive. If user A wants to grant some permission to them, User A needs to do so manually. Such a setup would allow User A to directly grant User C Write permission after the file was uploaded. User B was granted Read permission, because they do not need to modify that specific file, for example.
+# Checking the permission shows that the permission of the parent folder are applied/inherited. Reason: Copy counts as new
+data --> Inheritance is applied.
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/folder_test
+/rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/folder_test:
+        ACL - teamdrive-owner@rug.nl#rug:own   rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:modify_object   g:Test_Team#rug:modify_object
+        Inheritance - Enabled
+# Now, we look at the permission of the second folder that we want to copy/move to show the effect of inheritance.
+# In this case, it is only a single user (rdms-testers@rug.nl) who has 'own' access on the folder
+$  ils -A folder_test
+/rug/home/rdms-testers@rug.nl/folder_test:
+        ACL - rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:own
+        Inheritance - Disabled
+# The folder is now moved to a RDMS destination with permission inheritance enabled.
+$  imv folder_test /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance
+# We check now the permissions again. Even with enabled inheritance, the permissions of the original folder are kept. Reason: Moving data does not count as new data --> Inheritance is not applied. Note that only rdms-testers@rug.nl has own permission. These are the original permissions before the move!
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/folder_test
+/rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/folder_test:
+        ACL - rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:own
+        Inheritance - Disabled
+</code>
+In order to make this concept clearer, we are going to describe two examples and show what happens when permission inheritance are either turned on or off. We also point out when enabling or disabling permission inheritance can be advantageous. Please bear in mind that we will be considering a basic set up, but that for more complex cases the effect of permission inheritance might not be immediately straightforward.
+==== Example: Permission Inheritance - Enabled ====
+In this example, we show what happens when the user ''rdms-testers@rug.nl'' uploads new data to a Team Drive. The user has 'write' permissions in the Team Drive and permission inheritance is enabled. The user is uploading the new file ''test.txt'' from their local system to the RDMS Team Drive folder.
+<code>
+# In this case, the folder has inheritance enabled.
+# The 'rdms-testers@rug.nl' user has write (modify_object) permissions.
+# Please look to the 'ACL' entry to see which permission 'rdms-testers' has in this folder.
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance
+/rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance:
+        ACL - teamdrive-owner@rug.nl#rug:own rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:modify_object   g:Test_Team#rug:modify_object
+        Inheritance - Enabled
+# The 'rdms-testers@rug.nl' user uploads a new file from the local system to the RDMS folder.
+$ iput test.txt /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance
+# See the 'ACL' entry to verify the permission level of 'rdms-testers'.
+# Permissions on the newly uploaded file show that it inherited the permission from the parent collection automatically.
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/test.txt
+  /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_with_inheritance/test.txt
+        ACL - teamdrive-owner@rug.nl#rug:own   rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:modify_object   g:Test_Team#rug:modify_object
+</code>
+As you can see above, the newly uploaded file now has exactly the same permissions as the Team Drive folder it was uploaded to. In this case, ''rdms-testers@rug.nl'' has 'write' permission, while the owner of the team drive still has 'own' permission on the file. If inheritance had been turned off, only ''rdms-testers@rug.nl'' would have had 'own' permission on the file. The other users in the Team Drive would not even see the file being uploaded, as they would not have any kind of permission on it.
+**Note**: A good reason to have permission inheritance enabled in a Team Drive is to make sure that all new data is provided with the correct permissions, no matter who does the upload. It also makes sure that data does not remain 'invisible' for certain users in a Team Drive simply because the permissions on it were not updated after the upload.
+==== Example: Permission Inheritance - Disabled ====
+In this other example, we now assume that permission inheritance is disabled. The user ''rdms-testers@rug.nl'' uploads a new file ''test.txt'' to a RDMS Team Drive folder. The only difference in this case from the example above is that permission inheritance is disabled for the destination folder. The permissions on the Team Drive folder are exactly the same as before.
+<code>
+# In this case, the folder has inheritance disabled.
+# The 'rdms-testers@rug.nl' user has write (modify_object) permissions.
+# Please look to the 'ACL' entry to see which permission 'rdms-testers' has in this folder.
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_without_inheritance
+/rug/home/Test_Team/folder_without_inheritance:
+        ACL - teamdrive-owner@rug.nl#rug:own   rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:modify_object   g:Test_Team#rug:modify_object
+        Inheritance - Disabled
+# The 'rdms-testers@rug.nl' user uploads a new file from the local system to the RDMS folder.
+$ iput test.txt /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_without_inheritance
+# See the 'ACL' entry to verify the permission level of 'rdms-testers'.
+# Permissions on the newly uploaded file show that it only has one permission: 'own' for the uploading user (creator).
+$ ils -A /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_without_inheritance/test.txt
+  /rug/home/Test_Team/folder_without_inheritance/test.txt
+        ACL - rdms-testers@rug.nl#rug:own
+</code>
+As you can see, the uploaded file now has only a single permission: Ownership for the creator (uploader), so 'own' for ''rdms-testers@rug.nl''. **There are no permissions for the team drive owner in this case. The file will be not accessible or even visible for this user**. This means that ''rdms-testers'' will need to set the permission manually to the desired value, if they want the Team Drive owner to also see and/or modify the file.
+**Note**: A good reason to have permission inheritance disabled in the top-level of a Team Drive is to allow for easy permission management when the permissions are not the same in all Team Drive locations. For instance, if User 1 should only have permissions in Folder 1 and User 2 should only have permissions in Folder 2, with permission inheritance disabled, you can then simply add the Users without having to remove other Users first when creating new folders. Permission inheritance can then be enabled again inside Folder 1 and Folder 2, to help keep track of the right permissions.