Creating Groups, Adding Users and Sharing Out Folders in Leopard 10.5

We get this question asked frequently as techs. For the uninitiated, here it is:

You go to System Preferences in the Apple Menu and to Accounts Preference Pane.

Click on the "+" button and choose Group from the New Account pop down menu.

Create a Group name and check off the members you want to add.

Go to the folder you are sharing out and do a Get Info. Under permissions click the "+" sign and add the Group you just created. Choose the correct permissions (Read Only;Read/Write). Use the Action button to Apply to Enclosed folders.

Check off "Shared Folder" if you haven't done so already.

That should be it. Now, regardless of whether a connecting user is in the Staff group or not as long as you have added them to your custom group they should not get any kind of ownership or permission issues..

As for where Mac OS X keeps all its directory information it is now under /var/db/dslocal/

(versus localdb as in the NetInfo of past)

The precise location of the group listings is /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/groups/
(kept in plist files).

Go Go