2 admins on the same computer?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Well, the slugline tells it all.



Is it safe to set two users with admin

privileges on the very same computer?



Or does this setting produces more hassles than it would

solve (in my case)?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    Having 2 administrators on a single computer shouldn't hurt anything.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by baranovich

    Having 2 administrators on a single computer shouldn't hurt anything.



    there are no conflicts whatever by editing/managing the same

    iTunes library for example, aren't they?
  • Reply 3 of 11
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Two admins = two accounts = two separate filesets for iTunes, etc.



    I'm not sure I'm getting what your question is. They're just like any other two accounts, except that they're authorized to do admin tasks.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Two admins = two accounts = two separate filesets for iTunes, etc.



    I'm not sure I'm getting what your question is. They're just like any other two accounts, except that they're authorized to do admin tasks.




    This is also true, if the two users share one big iTunes library, say,

    on a separate partition, right?



    Otherwise, thank you, that is, what i probably wanted to hear.



  • Reply 5 of 11
    You do not want to try sharing the files between two accounts. There are lots of permissions issues (you could solve them using ACL's in 10.4, but you would have to get the tool from 'Server to turn them on).



    Short version: don't do that.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Karl Kuehn

    You do not want to try sharing the files between two accounts. There are lots of permissions issues (you could solve them using ACL's in 10.4, but you would have to get the tool from 'Server to turn them on).



    Short version: don't do that.




    permissions issues that's what i was suspecting all along.

    Thank you for pitching in.



    Anyway, you do not recommend sharing a huge iTunes library, which

    is placed on a different partition (other than system partition) at all.



    Or do you not recommend sharing a huge iTunes library simply between

    two admin accounts?



    your patience is appreciated
  • Reply 7 of 11
    You will have the same issues with two different accounts regardless whether they are admins or not. iTunes is not setup with the assumption that only a single user has access to the files.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Karl Kuehn

    You will have the same issues with two different accounts regardless whether they are admins or not. iTunes is not setup with the assumption that only a single user has access to the files.



    Thank you.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    I have a setup that does this, shares the same iTunes files on separate accounts (where all iTunes music is on a different hard drive)...



    The iTunes xml files/playlists/etc are different for each user, but the location of the music files is the same...



    To do this, I first needed to ensure that the music files can always be read/written by anyone, so I made a cron script that recursively sets the permissions in the music directory such that anyone can read the files, which runs hourly (I'm sure you can do this with a folder action script but have never figured out how to do it, in the case when new music is added to the directory).



    Now that everyone has read access to the music, just drag it to your iTunes library and voila, works. And make sure you disable iTunes' ability to organize the music by itself.



    Alright so my method is slightly hacked, but it works fine.



    edit:

    If you're really interested in doing it this way, this is how to set up the cron job (requires terminal skills):



    1) Make a new text document (use textedit or whatever, don't save as rtf, just regular txt)...



    2) In the text file this goes:

    0 * * * * chown -R root:admin /Volumes/PATHTOMUSIC; chmod -R 774 /Volumes/PATHTOMUSIC > /dev/null 2>&1



    This will run the permissions script hourly...



    3) In terminal, go to this text document and enable execute bit: chmod +x <text file name> (actually I don't think you need to do this but I forget)



    4) Install the crontab file: in terminal:

    sudo crontab <text file name>



    5) Just keep the text document somewhere you know, in case you need it in the future (I don't know if you can delete it or not actually)...
  • Reply 10 of 11
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by chych

    I have a setup that does this, shares the same iTunes files on separate accounts (where all iTunes music is on a different hard drive)...



    The ...




    Hey thank you for pitching in.

    The reason i started this particular topic is:

    i have got that hunch, and it is just a hunch, that

    i got some permission issues lately (weired crashes etc)

    because i have two accounts on my PB with admin privileges -

    and both accounts just share one big iTunes library on

    a separate partition.



    EDIT: i set one of my "iTunes" prefs in one of my accounts

    to the default setting (storing music in the home library)

    guess i have to wait and see what is happening.



    I am pretty much sure for now that this "sharing one

    iTunes library" between two accounts is the culprit

    for some weired behavior on my PB.



    Anyway, thank you all for your helping thougts.

  • Reply 11 of 11
    You could always put files on FAT disc, FAT doesn't use any permissions, so anyone is allowed to read and write to it.
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