Re: [tlug] Whoops... messed up home directory permissions

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

One must ensure that there is a way to undo one's experiments 
before jumping into them. 

Dave M G wrote:

> Some advice a guy gave me was to set the permissions of my home 
> directory so that no one can write to it, and see if any process throws 
> an error when trying to create the unwanted file.

Before doing something like that, it's good to number one's feathers. 

I.e., it would have been good to see what the permissions were 
and write them down _before_ changing them. 

   ls -ld ~

Even after having screwed them up, looking at the permissions 
for other users' directories would have given you a good clue. 
I.e., 

   ls -l /home

would have given you a good idea of what a user's home directory 
should have for permissions. Mine is set to 700. I.e., the 
owner (user) can do anything, nobody else can do anything.