[GRASSLIST:6921] Re: multiple users issue

[Glynn Clements]

Ian W. Macmillan wrote:

> Unfortunately you must have administrative access (root) to run grass.  I
> haven't heard of any way around this.

That definitely isn't true.

However, you need to ensure that directory ownership and permissions
are correct, e.g.:

1. A user needs to own their mapset directories; write permission
isn't sufficient (although it isn't hard to remove this restriction if
it's a problem).

2. To create a new mapset within a location, a user needs write
permission on the location directory.

3. To create a new location, a user needs write permission on the
database directory.

How to achieve this depends upon how much freedom the users need.

For a teaching environment where the users are students carrying out
predetermined tasks with a supplied dataset, root can pre-create all
of the mapset directories (one per user, plus PERMANENT) and set each
user's directory to be owned by that user.

If you need more flexibility, e.g. the users are staff, researchers or
more advanced students, and need to be able to create new locations
and mapsets, the database and location directories need to be at least
group-writable so that users can create new subdirectories.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>