0

There are lot of questions regarding the same mistake , What i did was :

chown -R root:www-data myfolder /

by mistake i typed a space between the folder & / . Then i was not able to do sudo any more . After following this link i was able to do sudo again . But my concern is will this going to break my system in the future ? would be there any issue in the future reboots ?

I still not closed the connected ssh as root . The server is used only as a webserver .

Shan
  • 103
  • 3
  • 2
    It's an issue already. I'd recommend to reinstall. – mook765 May 14 '20 at 12:37
  • 1
    On a stock Ubuntu system, that command should have none nothing at all (no 'sudo'). However, if you used 'sudo', or were (unwisely) using a root prompt, then that command would damage your system beyond convenient repair. Backup your data (fix it too; Your data now has the wrong ownership) and then reinstall. – user535733 May 14 '20 at 12:40
  • The server has no other user accounts . My concern is will this breaks the booting ? I cant even think about it – Shan May 14 '20 at 12:44
  • Exactly which release of Ubuntu is this server running? – user535733 May 14 '20 at 13:23
  • The server version is : Ubuntu 18.04.3 – Shan May 14 '20 at 21:14

1 Answers1

0

This is a fatal error. There is no way you can correctly restore the file permissions. So, reinstall or restore from a system backup.

vanadium
  • 88,010
  • Until this day, there isn't any problems. Tried restarting also. But i accept this answer, considering the depth if the issue that could impact on the system. – Shan Jun 10 '20 at 19:38
  • As such, you may not have had issues because the command made root owner of every last file on the system, but indeed, it is fundamentally impossible to restore the ownerships to their original state (which for system files will be root:root in the majority of cases anyway). – vanadium Jun 11 '20 at 09:47
  • completely agree with you – Shan Jun 11 '20 at 12:29