Managing EACLs in the AccuRev GUI

This section describes how to manage EACLs in the AccuRev GUI. You can also manage EACLs using the CLI. (Changes that you make using one interface are reflected in the other.) See the section eacl in the AccuRev CLI User’s Guide for more information on using the CLI. See Element-Level Security (EACLs) of the AccuRev Administrator’s Guide for more detailed information on EACLs, permissions, and privileges.

Effect of Setting Permissions on an Element

By default, all users have the Allow privilege for elements under AccuRev control. Generally speaking, you use the procedures described in this section to assign a more restrictive privilege (like Read Only or Deny, for example) to an element, or to restore a user’s default privileges.

When you specify a privilege for an element, that setting is reflected throughout the depot. Consider the following simple depot:

If you change the privilege for an element in the velo_dfoster workspace, that change is automatically reflected in all the other streams in the depot; the same is true for changes made to an element’s privileges in, say, the int stream. In other words, you do not have to promote an element or update a workspace to propagate changes to its privileges throughout the depot.

Setting Permissions for an Element

Use this procedure to set permissions for an element. If you want to control access to a stream, use ACLs.

To set permissions for an element:

1.	In the File Browser, select the elements whose permissions you want to set.

2.	Right-click one of the selected files and choose Permissions... from the shortcut menu.

Alternatives: Use the Ctrl+E accelerator key, or choose Actions > Permissions... from the main menu.

The Set Element Permissions dialog box appears.

3.	In the Elements list box, select the element whose privileges you want to modify.

Tip: You can select only one element at a time.

The Users/Groups list box displays the principals who currently have access to the element you selected, and the privileges specified for that element.

Note: The "All Users" name means just that -- all users and groups defined in the depot. Exceptions (like users banthony and jalan) are called out separately. In this example, all users have Allow privileges for forms.xml, except users banthony and jalan, who have Read Only access for that element.

4.	Click the Add button.

The Add Principals dialog box appears.

Note that the list does not include any principals for whom privileges have already been defined for the selected elements. In this example, users banthony and jalan do not appear because privileges have already been set for them for the selected element. (Use the Edit action to change existing privileges. See Editing Permissions for more information.)

5.	Select the principal whose privilege you want to set for the element selected in Step 3.

Note: Changes that you make to permissions take effect as soon as you click the Ok button in the Add Principals dialog box.

6.	Select the privilege you want to assign and click the Ok button.

If you selected a directory in Step 1, AccuRev asks whether you want to apply the privilege recursively to all elements in that directory. See Setting Permissions on a Directory for more information on this topic.

The change you made appears in the Users/Groups list box. Here, for example, we see that the privilege for user eharvey has been changed from Allow to Read Only for the element selected in Step 3:

7.	If you selected more than one element in Step 1, return to Step 3 and repeat this procedure for the remaining elements.

Otherwise, click Close.

Setting Permissions on a Directory

When you set permissions on a directory, AccuRev displays a dialog box that allows you to specify whether or not you want these permissions to be applied recursively:

Choose:

§	Yes to apply the permission to the selected directory, all child directories, and all elements within those directories.

§	No to apply the permission to the selected directory only.

§	Cancel or click the X button on the dialog box to cancel the operation without making any changes.

Consider the following example. Here, the Deny permission was set recursively on the /hobart directory for user jmarches. You can see that the Deny permission was set for elements within the
/hobart/hobart directory, as with the AssemblyInfo.cpp file:

Editing Permissions

Use this procedure when you want to edit the permissions associated with an element.

1.	Display the Set Element Permissions dialog box. See Setting Permissions for an Element if you need help with this step.

2.	In the Elements list box, select the element whose permissions you want to edit.

The Principals list box displays all of the users and groups who currently have a privilege set for that element.

3.	In the Principals list box, select the user or group whose privilege you want to modify.

4.	Click the Edit button.

The Edit Permission dialog box appears. The user’s current privilege is selected by default.

5.	Select the desired privilege and click Ok.

The changes you make are applied immediately.

Copying Permissions

Use this procedure when you want to copy the permissions associated with one element and apply them to another element.

Note: When you paste, any existing permissions associated with the target element are overwritten.

1.	Display the Set Element Permissions dialog box. See Setting Permissions for an Element if you need help with this step.

2.	In the Elements list box, select the element whose permissions you want to copy.

3.	Click the Copy Permissions button to copy that element’s permissions.

4.	In the Elements list box, select the element to which you want to apply the permissions you copied in Step 3.

5.	Click the Paste Permissions button to paste the copied permissions to the selected element.

The changes you make are applied immediately.

Removing Permissions

Use this procedure to remove permissions for an element from one or more users.

Note: When you remove a privilege that you explicitly set for a user or group, that privilege reverts to the value set for any group to which that user or group belongs. Note, however, that the default behavior for an element whose ACL does have any permissions defined for a user is to deny access to that user.

1.	Display the Set Element Permissions dialog box. See Setting Permissions for an Element if you need help with this step.

2.	In the Elements list box, select the element whose permissions you want to modify.

The Users/Groups list box displays all of the users and groups who currently have a privilege set for that element.

3.	In the Users/Groups list box, select the user or group whose privilege you want to remove for this element.

Tip: Use Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select multiple users or groups.

4.	Click the Remove button.