BBS:      TELESC.NET.BR
Assunto:  Question about file ownership after restart and possible login delay
De:       Winzlo
Data:     Fri, 24 Apr 2026 08:58:47 -0500
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hi all,

I've been doing some testing on my Synchronet 3.21 system under Linux, and I ran into something I'm not entirely sure I'm interpreting correctly. I wanted to run it by the group in case I'm misunderstanding expected behavior.

My setup is a fairly standard one where Synchronet starts as root (to bind to low ports) and then drops privileges to the sbbs user.

While troubleshooting an unrelated login delay, I noticed that after restarting the BBS using sudo, a couple of files ended up owned by root:

- /sbbs/data/msgs/0001.msg
- /sbbs/data/error.log

When those files are owned by root, logging in (especially as user #1) introduces a noticeable delay during the logon process. Once I change ownership back to sbbs:sbbs, the delay goes away immediately.

That made me wonder a couple things:

- Is it expected that these files might be created or touched before the privilege drop occurs?
- Or should they normally end up owned by the runtime user (sbbs) even after a restart?
- Is there a recommended way to avoid this situation when restarting (for example, a preferred service method)?

It's entirely possible I'm missing something about the startup sequence, so I figured I'd ask before digging further in the wrong direction.

Really appreciate any insight.

-Winzlo

 The Down-Lo BBS  bbs.winzlo.com
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
 * Origin: The Down-Lo BBS * bbs.winzlo.com (1:154/140)
n  mSynchronetn  hgVertrauen n hHome of Synchronet n gh[vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

-----------------------------------------------------------
[Voltar]