Deleting files via Plex - permissions / ownership issue

[Joulinar]

@krollinsgh

And you never answered that question about what drive format might have been preferred to exFAT…?

Normally I would recommend a Linux file system format like ext4. However, as there is a need to use the disc on a non-Linux system, there are hardly any alternatives to the exfat format already in use.

@krollinsgh

Also ls- lah gives me this, which hasn’t changed and that makes sense.

total 36K
drwx------  5 root root 4.0K Apr 25 12:57 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4.0K Apr 19 19:10 ..
-rw-------  1 root root 7.9K Apr 25 12:57 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  571 Apr 10  2021 .bashrc
drwx------  3 root root 4.0K Mar 27  2024 .config
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4.0K Apr  7  2024 .local
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  161 Jul  9  2019 .profile
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4.0K Feb 19  2024 .ssh

Well, there should be no changes here, as you have executed the command in the root user home directory. The changes we have made only relate to the external disc.

@krollinsgh

Perhaps you can educate me on what changed

exfat itself does not support Linux file system permissions. However, you can mount a corresponding file system with a special user/group. We have done this with the entry in /etc/fstab. All files on the external disc now belong to the user Plex. At least that’s how it looks to the system

@krollinsgh

and if security or other risks may have been opened up by handling things with this workaround

There shouldn’t really be any security risk.

@krollinsgh

Finally, if you would go back to my samba config… are there any oddities in there that should be removed or tidied up?

if you want you can change the two entries to plex/dietpi.

@krollinsgh

        force user = root
        force group = root

@krollinsgh

I felt like a few things (perhaps too many) were thrown at the wall in getting that to work.

What exactly do you mean by that?

[krollinsgh]

It’s a turn of phrase:
“Throwing something at the wall to see what sticks.”
To experiment in a haphazard or random way with the hope that some amount of success may be achieved.

So I meant that in my taking a few different suggestions from others while trying to get samba to work initially, I perhaps tried too many different things, or added too many lines to that config. Thus despite it eventually working, I had always wondered if there were things in there that were incorrect or simply unnecessary.

It’s been a while, but I recall there were a couple of flaws or omissions in the guide I followed back then. I had learned enough that I spotted them myself along the way… but I was so close to finishing the job that I tried a few different suggestions rather than start over with a different guide. So we threw a few things at the wall, and one of them worked

You mention changing those two force lines, so that’s one I can do certainly.

I appreciate you sticking with me on this and finding a workaround.

[krollinsgh]

One more thing: are the two mask lines in each of these two sections correct, given the changes we have made? I’m also curious why the first set (0664 and 0075) do not match.

[dietpi]
        comment = DietPi Share
        path = /mnt/dietpi_userdata
        browseable = yes
        create mask = 0664
        directory mask = 0775
        valid users = dietpi
        writeable = yes
        max connections = 8

[PLEXDRIVE]
        comment = Samba Share for Plex
        path = /mnt/PLEXDRIVE
        valid users = plexpi
        browseable = yes
        writeable = yes
        create mask = 0775
        directory mask = 0775
        guest ok = no
        force user = plex
        force group = dietpi 
        follow symlinks = yes
        read raw = yes
        write raw = yes
        socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_RCVBUF=131072 SO_SNDBUF=131072
        min receivefile size = 16384
        use sendfile = yes
        aio read size = 16384
        aio write size = 16384
        strict allocate = yes
        strict locking = no
        max connections = 8

[Jappe]

@krollinsgh

I’m also curious why the first set (0664 and 0075) do not match.

These are the default file permission when you create a file via samba.
664 for the directory and 775 for files.
This is only important for creating for, not for deletion

[Joulinar]

@Jappe

664 for the directory and 775 for file

the other way round, isn’t it?

[krollinsgh]

OK thanks. Been a while since that was first set up, then tinkered with a bit… and with some recent changes here I’m just giving it a look over.

If what was just posted isn’t spot on, then drop me an update.

[Jappe]

Yes, I just switched it up accidentally.

[krollinsgh]

OK so I’ll keep the original then, got it.

create mask = 0664
directory mask = 0775

[Joulinar]

Usually it doesn’t matter in your case. As already stated, you are using exfat on your disk. This one doesn’t support Linux file system permissions.