Apple Releases "Repair Privileges" Utility For Mac OS X

by , 3:00 PM EDT, June 26th, 2002

Apple has released a tool for Mac OS X owners who have had difficulty with permissions in their system files. Unlike Classic Mac OS, permission settings for files are important, and if system files get the wrong permissions, problems can occur. The utility addresses several specific problems. From the document at Apple's support site:

The Repair Privileges utility restores the privileges of Mac OS X system files and Apple-installed software to their default configuration. All previous modifications to the privileges of these files and directories will be lost. While this utility does not change permissions of third-party software (if third-party software has changed Apple-set permissions), that software may not work as expected after using the utility.

Use the Repair Privileges utility to resolve any of the following issues:

• "An error of type -192" alert message in Disk Copy when disk images fail to become available.
• "An error of type -108" alert message in Print Center when spooling print jobs.
• "You are running Classic without superuser (root) Privileges" alert message when trying to start up Classic and the System Folder is blessed.
• An Admin user cannot drag files to a folder to which they should have write access, for example, the Applications folder.
• Files are unexpectedly locked and cannot be unlocked in the Finder.

System Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.1.5 only

Important: Read Before Using

1. An Admin user password is required to use the utility.
2. The utility only repairs Apple-installed software that is located on a Mac OS X startup volume. Apple software that was not installed from .pkg archives will not be changed. This includes files that are created after installation, including user home directories.
3. The utility requires that the expected software receipt .pkg files exist in /Library/Receipts/. If any or all of these files have been removed, the Repair Privileges utility may not work or only partially repair your system privileges.

You can find more information and download links at Apple's support site. Thanks to Observer Spider for the heads up on the release.

Repair Permissions Utility