I moved from Debian to FreeBSD. On the new server, I no longer have root access. What I want is simple: the root directory of one of my user's home folder needs to be chmodded to 711. Now, when I ask my host to do that for me, the permissions get changed again after a while. I was told that some stuff called "vsys" prevents me from permanently changing the permissions of that directory. I don't understand this. A server administrator should be able to set the permissions of a directory. All I get from the host is the same answer over and over again. I don't want to move any scripts, and I don't want to change the user groups. When I log into the server, it shows me "FreeBSD 5.5-STABLE (vsys) #1". Does anybody have experience with this "vsys"?
I have no experience wirth vsys and Google wasn't particularly helpful (all it found was you asking the same question all over the ineternet but it sounds like it's a file system integrity checker like Tripwire, AIDE or BART. It also appears that the way they have it conigured is to revert any changes that violate their rules rather than just warn someone about the violations. I guess they have very simple rules such as 755 for directories, 644 for files without taking into consideration that you may want to execute a file or you may want others to execute a file without being able to read the file (because it contains the database password...) If my guess is correct, keeping these permissions on your file will involve changing the rules in the config of vsys and that's a small bit of extrea effort. People can be very resistant to extra effort. On the other hand, since you are paying them, you can tell them to get off their lazy backsides and fix your problem.
I didn't post it all over the net. Just in one newsgroup (that was unfortunately not helpful). I agree with you. The file system is checked periodically and changes are reverted. I was wondering if anybody had experience with this system. But it might even be an exclusive program of my host. Why else would there be no information about it on the net? So the question is if that program has configuration settings, like you said, or if they hard-coded it into the program. It really upsets me that I am hitting such a resistance from my host's side in this matter.
That may be a stupid question but... why not going back to Debian ? I would not even consider using a system that I don't know well enough to be able to change a directory permission.
FreeBSD is one heck of a system if you know how to deal with it i have been using freeBSD since last 5 years and I have fallen in love with it! why not try this? login to ur account through ssh. pico .profile and add this line in the end.. chmod ~/www/yourdesireddirectory 711 now whenever you login to your ssh this command will be executed! hope that helps! if not pm me for further information.