I have a simple enough question. The folder /private which contains many of the needed system files for my iMac was moved, and due to the folder containing the system password, I wasn't able to move it back even with Terminal. Connecting via FireWire from another computer allowed me to move it, but it was not copied over correctly in the process and I guess something was damaged. I ended up rebooting from my Time Machine backup (Luckily it saved 10 minutes before the crash!) and it seemed to fix everything.
The only problem that I can see is that the file is no longer hidden. It seems like some of the permissions were changed as well, as I couldn't boot Terminal without changing the permissions on the file to read only. The file was tampered with a bit, so if the permissions (or something else, I am just focusing on permissions) were changed by mistake I wouldn't want anything terrible to happen because of it.
Is there a problem with leaving such an important system file unprotected? I wouldn't want a program (or another person) to accidentally modify something it is not supposed to. As of right now my file permissions (stated by the Get Info menu item) are:
system - Read/Write
wheel - Read only
everyone - Read only
And here are the permissions as stated from the ls -l command in Terminal:
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Feb 18 00:48 private
Are these permissions okay to have with such an important file, and should this file be hidden? If so, how would I go about hiding it? My main concern is that something is wrong with the file that I haven't caught yet that will cause some sort of complex error in the future. So basically I need a second opinion on the subject. And I know this is probably an incredibly simple post, but I wanted to make sure everything is alright and I don't trust myself to do so. Thanks for your help!
The only problem that I can see is that the file is no longer hidden. It seems like some of the permissions were changed as well, as I couldn't boot Terminal without changing the permissions on the file to read only. The file was tampered with a bit, so if the permissions (or something else, I am just focusing on permissions) were changed by mistake I wouldn't want anything terrible to happen because of it.
Is there a problem with leaving such an important system file unprotected? I wouldn't want a program (or another person) to accidentally modify something it is not supposed to. As of right now my file permissions (stated by the Get Info menu item) are:
system - Read/Write
wheel - Read only
everyone - Read only
And here are the permissions as stated from the ls -l command in Terminal:
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Feb 18 00:48 private
Are these permissions okay to have with such an important file, and should this file be hidden? If so, how would I go about hiding it? My main concern is that something is wrong with the file that I haven't caught yet that will cause some sort of complex error in the future. So basically I need a second opinion on the subject. And I know this is probably an incredibly simple post, but I wanted to make sure everything is alright and I don't trust myself to do so. Thanks for your help!