How to create a Shared Folder between two Local User in Linux?
This article shows how to set-up a shared folder between two local users in Linux. The shared directory/folder will be accessible to both the users, they will be able to read/write each other’s file.
Let us create shared directory /home/shareFolder for user Bob and Alice and add them to a common group named projectA.
Note: You can create the uses Bob and Alice using following commands:
$ sudo useradd Bob $ sudo passwd Bob $ sudo useradd Alice $ sudo passwd Alice
- So, start by creating common group using groupadd command.
$ sudo groupadd projectA
- Now, create shared directory and change group for it using chgrp command.
$ sudo mkdir /home/sharedFolder/ $ sudo chgrp projectA /home/sharedFolder
- After this we need to change appropriate permissions for the shared directory using chmod command.
$ sudo chmod 770 /home/sharedFolder/
Here 770 permission means:
7 – owner has rwx permissions. 7 – directory groups have rwx permissions. 0 – others have no permissions.
- We also need to set the SGID(Set-Group-ID) bit for the sharedFolder directory, now all newly created subdirectories/files under sharedFolder will inherit sharedFolder permissions.
$ sudo chmod +s /home/sharedFolder
- Finally we add users to the common group with whom to share the folder
$ sudo usermod -a -G projectA Bob $ sudo usermod -a -G projectA Alice
Now /home/sharedFolder is accessible to both the user Bob and Alice. But others can’t access this directory. This directory will be accessible to only members of projectA group.