[plug] Can't write to home directory input/output error

[James Devenish]

In message <20031221082805.69053.qmail at web40301.mail.yahoo.com>
on Sun, Dec 21, 2003 at 07:28:05PM +1100, russ wrote:
> But why would root have no problems?

Perhaps because certain verifications of permission may be skipped when
the user is the superuser. (That is, "If the uid is zero, no further
tests need be performed. But if the uid is greater than zero, further
checks are required.") In your case, the fact that root has "no
problems" looks like the proverbial red herring.

Background info: there are certain UNIX-style error conditions that are
expressed using "well-known phrases". In this case, "input/output error"
sounds like one of those "well-known phrases" corresponding to the "EIO"
condition from the Linux kernel and the standard C library. It is not
merely an application programmer's phrase-of-the-day. In the handling of
errors, the "EPERM" condition corresponds to "operation not permitted"
(often "permission denied") whereas the "EIO" condition corresponds to
"physical input/ output error".