Introduction
When you install InterMapper on a Linux system, you specify a user name to run the intermapperd process. This user name needs to have permission to read, write and create files in the "InterMapper Settings" folder. If the intermapperd program encounters any files with incorrect permissions, the intermapperd server may fail to perform certain operations or refuse to run at all.
Please Don't Run as Root!
On a typical UNIX system, the user named "root" has access to every file on the system. If you are having trouble with file permissions, it is tempting to run as root. Don't do it! intermapperd is designed to run as a regular user. All the privileged code for opening raw sockets and low-numbered TCP ports is deliberately compartmentalized into the setuid-root program named "intermapperauthd". There should be no need to run intermapperd as the root user.
Finding Your InterMapper Settings Folder
To find the location of your InterMapper Settings folder, examine the contents of the file "/usr/local/etc/intermapperd.conf" Two directives help to specify the location of your InterMapper Settings, User and SettingsFolder.
If SettingsFolder is set to a value, then that value is the full path to your InterMapper Settings folder.
If SettingsFolder is missing or commented out, then the User directive indirectly specifies the location of the InterMapper Settings folder, as follows:
If the User is "root", the InterMapper Settings folder is located at "/var/local/InterMapper_Settings".
Otherwise, the InterMapper Settings folder is located at "$HOME/InterMapper_Settings", where "$HOME" is the home directory of the specified user.
Fixing File Ownership
To fix the file ownership of your InterMapper Settings folder, use the /sbin/chown command:
/sbin/chown -R <user> InterMapper_Settings
In the above command, replace <user> with the desired InterMapper user name. An alternate form of the command can change both the user and group owners. On many systems, creating a user named "bill" also creates a group named "bill". To set both at the same time, use this form of the command:
/sbin/chown -R bill:bill InterMapper_Settings
