Mac users who have long been at the mercy of arcane permissions from Mac OS X’s Unix underpinnings can now regain mastery of their Macs with “Take Control of Permissions in Snow Leopard,” the latest title in the Take Control library about Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”).

Written by Unix guru and Mac aficionado Brian Tanaka, the 91-page ebook mixes how-to details and troubleshooting tips with just a certain amount of theory as it explains permissions in relation to how to keep files private, copy files to and from servers effectively, work with accounts and groups, configure ACLs, set the Ignore Permissions option for external disks, repair default permissions, and delete those files that just won’t die. The ebook may be purchased for US$10 at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/snow-leopard-permissions .

For those who want to learn advanced concepts, the ebook also delves into topics like the sticky bit, symbolic versus absolute ways to set permissions, and how to work with bit masks. In particular, Tanaka looks at what’s new with permissions in Snow Leopard, including the
increased use of access control lists. The book covers managing permissions from the Finder’s Get Info and Inspector windows, from the Unix command line, and using the third-party utility FileXaminer.