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cmeisenzahl · Nov 7, 2005, 09:45 AM

From what I've read in the last 6 months, it seems like many of us do it quite often. I've had an iBook since March. Over the weekend I did it for the first time and there were about 20 items repaired. I had no problems before that, but felt like I was missing out. ;-)

How often do you repair permissions in OS X?

Chris

RevEvs · Nov 7, 2005, 10:29 AM

I just set mine to be a cron job, goes every night at midnight.

cybergoober · Nov 7, 2005, 11:39 AM

Only when I have a problem that I think it might remedy... i.e. not very often.

Grrr · Nov 7, 2005, 11:43 AM

Every couple of weeks or so. And after big installs/updates. Plus i'll do it on the odd occasion I notice anything strange going on with the OS.

CaptainHaddock · Nov 7, 2005, 12:01 PM

Never.

Never had a problem, either.

jmgriff · Nov 7, 2005, 12:06 PM

Before and after installing system updates or large applications. Probably every couple of weeks otherwise.

TETENAL · Nov 7, 2005, 12:47 PM

I never repair permissions.

Chuckit · Nov 7, 2005, 01:00 PM

I do it when I have a permissions problem. How silly would it be to keep repairing them when they weren't doing anything wrong?

CharlesS · Nov 7, 2005, 01:19 PM

Pretty silly, but that won't stop people from doing it (and also advising newbies that don't know any better to waste their time doing it as well).

You don't need to repair permissions unless you are having a permission-related problem. Period. It's not necessary to do it before or after an OS update, it's not necessary to do it every night, and it's not necessary to do it before installing the OS.

P · Nov 7, 2005, 01:31 PM

Never ever. I tweak my permissions on occaison, so it would just be counterproductive.

CatOne · Nov 7, 2005, 03:56 PM

Mac people do it WAY too often. They typically don't understand what it really does, and they think a whole lot of maladies can be fixed by repairing permissions. Which they cannot. You cannot address ANYTHING in your home folder with "Repair Permissions," because there is not a BOM in /Library/Receipts for them. Have a look in /Library/Receipts, to see the specific things the OS knows about and can "fix" with repair permissions.

The great advances in science came when people started figuring out they could LEARN how things work, and not just accept things blindly (like, say, that the sun was carried across the sun in a chariot -- people actually believed this in the Roman days). Take some time to think about what you're doing, and whether it could have an affect, don't just throw prophylactics at things and think it will fix anything.

chris v · Nov 7, 2005, 04:15 PM

Before and after brushing my teeth, each morning and evening.

Actually, maybe once every few months, if I'm having permissions-related problems. Third-party installers can mung things up, like the startup items folder.

chris v · Nov 7, 2005, 04:15 PM

It's that darn quick-reply button, I'm tellin' ya.

barney ntd · Nov 7, 2005, 04:55 PM

After installing anything old which uses a classic installer. Some of these really mess up permissions, especially classic Vise. Also after booting in classic, just in case (because OS 9 ignores permissions, so important things can get changed).

Otherwise, never. Remember that the "We are using special permissions..." messages appear even if nothing needs changing, so they don't mean anything was wrong.

Person Man · Nov 7, 2005, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by barney ntd

Otherwise, never. Remember that the "We are using special permissions..." messages appear even if nothing needs changing, so they don't mean anything was wrong.

Which is why I don't think they should be displayed at all. It makes people think there was a problem.

I hardly ever repair my permissions, and I certainly don't repair them before or after a system update.

There was only one time repairing permissions actually fixed something and that was when my mother called me and said "Appleworks won't work any more." I tried everything I could think of, and it only bounced a few times in the dock and wouldn't start. Everything else worked. I repaired permissions as a last resort, and it worked.

Now, getting my mother off AppleWorks entirely is another matter...

Goldfinger · Nov 7, 2005, 06:50 PM

When I'm bored.

jon l. dawson · Nov 7, 2005, 10:02 PM

Whenever there's been a need,... which so far has been never.

SMacTech · Nov 7, 2005, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by jon l. dawson

Whenever there's been a need,... which so far has been never.

There was that one time, I forget why, but after I ran it, everything worked.

bowwowman · Nov 8, 2005, 12:23 AM

only when my momma tells me to

like the good little boy that I am !

- - e r i k - - · Nov 8, 2005, 12:24 AM

I do it every full moon to maximize the effect!

SpaceMonkey · Nov 8, 2005, 03:17 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

I do it every full moon to maximize the effect!

That only works if you do the ceremonial dance beforehand.

JLL · Nov 8, 2005, 04:20 AM

Almost never.

alphasubzero949 · Nov 8, 2005, 04:49 AM

Only after installing Flash Player or anything else that could screw up the permissions.

wtmcgee · Nov 8, 2005, 08:47 AM

before and after OS updates, that's about it though.

Big Mac · Nov 8, 2005, 08:55 AM

Repairing permissions regularly is akin to rebooting or shutting down regularly (instead of sleep mode). It's essentially unnecessary but some people have been conditioned to practice it ritualistically, and it makes them feel good inside.

m.brown · Nov 8, 2005, 09:32 AM

Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X.

TETENAL · Nov 8, 2005, 10:04 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Repairing permissions regularly is akin to rebooting or shutting down regularly (instead of sleep mode). It's essentially unnecessary but some people have been conditioned to practice it ritualistically, and it makes them feel good inside.

My Mac uses 2.5 Watt when shut down and 12 Watt when in sleep mode (yes, I measured that). I wouldn't say that shutting down is "unnecessary" (unless your mommy still pays your electricity bill).

CharlesS · Nov 8, 2005, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

My Mac uses 2.5 Watt when shut down and 12 Watt when in sleep mode (yes, I measured that). I wouldn't say that shutting down is "unnecessary" (unless your mommy still pays your electricity bill).

But doesn't it take more power than normal while it's booting up?

TETENAL · Nov 8, 2005, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

But doesn't it take more power than normal while it's booting up?

I don't think so. Why should it? But I will reboot for you and measure it.

TETENAL · Nov 8, 2005, 08:47 PM

OK, you were right, it uses more power when booting up for whatever reason (maybe CPU speed is not reduced yet). When booting it uses about 190 Watt. It's at 130 Watt in the login window and uses not quite 140 Watt now in Safari (I usually see about 145 Watt for normal usage).

So I am "wasting" 190 Watt for about 40 seconds when booting up (that's 2 Watt/h) but I'm saving 10 Watt for 12 to 14 hours when it's off instead of sleeping. I'm better off turning it off.

jasong · Nov 8, 2005, 08:59 PM

Never. And I pity the fool who does

ogun · Nov 9, 2005, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by cmeisenzahl

From what I've read in the last 6 months, it seems like many of us do it quite often. I've had an iBook since March. Over the weekend I did it for the first time and there were about 20 items repaired. I had no problems before that, but felt like I was missing out. ;-)

How often do you repair permissions in OS X?

Chris

I repair permissions for two reasons:

1 after installing certain software, particularly drivers for HP printers or MFDs. HP's installers used to reliably install stuff with the wrong permissions, and sometimes it was an adventure to get HP printers to print properly. HP seem to have learned recently, the last few HP drivers I installed didn't need to have permissions updated, so I'll be avoiding repairing permissions after an install unless and until there's a problem.

2 after getting certain types of problems with 3rd-party apps. Repairing permissions sometimes gets the app to behave. I don't have those kind of problems often.

Agent69 · Nov 9, 2005, 11:36 AM

I generally don't repair permissions because I have never had a problem, as far as I know. I will do one after installing a point release update but I did it just as a precaution.

I do have two permissions related questions though.

01. Where does Mac OS X get the values it uses for permission checking?
02. How does one set the umask value for a user?

JKT · Nov 9, 2005, 11:40 AM

The default permissions are taken from the .pkg receipts placed in /Library/Receipts.

egadsby · Nov 9, 2005, 11:56 AM

I have found that permissions repair is good "first step" in looking at the kind of lab problems I encounter at the college. About 1/2 the time it fixes the issue I'm looking at

osiris · Nov 9, 2005, 12:02 PM

I repair permissions when things start getting wonky - like icons looking weird or incorrect file creator types on documents, or whenever I want that clean fresh minty feeling.

A restart usually repairs things just as well, but I normally never restart or shutdown (except for updates).

CharlesS · Nov 9, 2005, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by osiris

I repair permissions when things start getting wonky - like icons looking weird or incorrect file creator types on documents

Those are generally caused by LaunchServices-related issues, not permissions.

osiris · Nov 9, 2005, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Those are generally caused by LaunchServices-related issues, not permissions.

I'm a bit confused - why then would repairing permissions restore my strange icons? Do LaunchServices require permissions?

thanks

ginoledesma · Nov 10, 2005, 12:19 AM

Rarely. I know that it's different strokes for different folks, but if Apple strongly believed that repairing permissions was "essential" I'd figure they'd roll it in during the optimizing stage of a major package install/update.

CharlesS · Nov 10, 2005, 03:02 AM

Originally Posted by osiris

I'm a bit confused - why then would repairing permissions restore my strange icons? Do LaunchServices require permissions?

thanks

What did you do after you repaired permissions? Reboot? Log out/in?

Probably that's actually what did it.

At any rate, your documents aren't going to show up in any of the receipts, so Repair Permissions isn't going to touch your documents with bad icons / wrong creator codes. If you've been having these types of problems a lot, I'd go into /Library/Caches, delete everything that starts with com.apple.launchservices, and reboot.

osiris · Nov 10, 2005, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

What did you do after you repaired permissions? Reboot? Log out/in?

Probably that's actually what did it.

At any rate, your documents aren't going to show up in any of the receipts, so Repair Permissions isn't going to touch your documents with bad icons / wrong creator codes. If you've been having these types of problems a lot, I'd go into /Library/Caches, delete everything that starts with com.apple.launchservices, and reboot.

I did log out, so that would explain it. I'm going to clear the caches now. Thank you!

lou91940 · Nov 11, 2005, 02:19 AM

Ok so running repair permissions isn't as necessary as I thought.... so what about occasionally zapping the pram? does that still do any housecleaning?

CharlesS · Nov 11, 2005, 02:59 AM

Originally Posted by lou91940

Ok so running repair permissions isn't as necessary as I thought.... so what about occasionally zapping the pram? does that still do any housecleaning?

If you're having boot problems or other strange things happening at boot time, yes. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much about the PRAM. Certainly there's no need to zap it on a regular basis.