PTS_LISTOWNED(1)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ pts_listowned — the manual page, but make it make sense ✨

okay bestie, so this is pts_listowned(1) from the AFS Command Reference and it's literally just "who owns which groups" but for the AFS Protection Database 💅

💖 NAME 💖

pts_listowned — shows you all the Protection Database groups that a user or a group owns. that's the whole vibe. group ownership reveal, no cap 🌸

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

pts listowned -nameorid <user or group name or id>+
    [-cell <cell name>] [-noauth] [-localauth] [-force] [-help]
    [-auth] [-encrypt] [-config <config directory>]

pts listo -na <user or group name or id>+
    [-c <cell name>] [-no] [-l] [-f] [-h]
    [-a] [-e] [-co <config directory>]

so there are two whole forms: the long one and the cute little abbreviated one (listo), and yes they do the same thing, she's just wearing a different outfit 🎀

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

pts listowned lists the groups owned by each user or group you hand it in the -nameorid argument. that's it. that's the job. iconic, focused, no notes ✨

now here's the plot twist: if you wanna see the orphaned groups — the ones whose owners have themselves been deleted from the Protection Database 😭 — you pass a value of 0 (zero) to -nameorid. to actually fix that and give those groups a new owner who still exists, you use the pts chown command. adoption arc 🫶

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -nameorid <user or group name or id>+ — tells it the name or AFS UID of each user, or the name or AFS GID of each group, that you want the owned-groups list for. you can absolutely mix users and groups on the same command line, and mix names and IDs too, it's giving chaotic but valid 💅. for each group, put a hyphen in front of the GID to show that it's negative. also! a value of 0 (zero) lists group entries for groups whose owners no longer have entries in the Protection Database 👻
  • -auth — uses the calling user's tokens to talk to the Protection Server. for more deets, go look at pts(1).
  • -cell <cell name> — names the cell you wanna run the command in. more deets in pts(1).
  • -config <config directory> — uses an alternate config directory. more deets in pts(1).
  • -encrypt — encrypts any communication with the Protection Server. more deets in pts(1). secure queen behavior 🔒
  • -force — lets the command keep going as far as it possibly can even when errors or other problems pop up, instead of slamming the brakes at the very first error. resilient 🧚
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. every other valid option gets ignored, so don't bother pairing it with anything. she's the main character now 👑
  • -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. do not combine this flag with the -cell or -noauth options, fr fr, they don't get along. more deets in pts(1).
  • -noauth — assigns the unprivileged identity anonymous to the issuer. more deets in pts(1). anonymous era 🙈

🌈 OUTPUT 🌈

the very first line of the output shows the name and AFS UID or AFS GID of each user or group you asked about, and it looks exactly like this:

Groups owned by <name> (id: <ID>) are:

then a list of groups follows it. ⚠️ heads up though: that list does not include groups owned by groups that the user or group owns, and it doesn't include groups owned by groups the user or group belongs to either. so it's the direct-ownership list only, no transitive shenanigans. if the user or group doesn't own any groups at all, you get only that header line and then nothing. crickets 🦗

and if the issuer isn't privileged enough to view ownership info, you get this error message instead. by default, for both user and group entries, the second privacy flag is the hyphen -, which denies permission to everyone except the user themself (for a user entry) and the members of the system:administrators group:

pts: Permission denied so failed to get owner list for <name> (id: <ID>)
bestie you do NOT have the clearance for this one 💀

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

here's a whole example where we list the groups owned by user terry, and it also shows that the group "terry:friends" doesn't own any groups (she's group-less, we love her anyway):

% pts listowned terry terry:friends
Groups owned by terry (id: 1045) are:
  terry:friends
  terry:project1
  terry:project2
Groups owned by terry:friends (id: -673) are:

see that empty line after the last header? that's the no groups owned moment. periodt. ✨

💜 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 💜

what you're allowed to do depends on the setting of the second privacy flag in the Protection Database entry of each user or group you named in -nameorid — and psst, use the pts examine command to actually see those flags 👀

  • if it's the hyphen - and the -nameorid argument specifies a group, then only the members of the system:administrators group and the owner of that group can list the groups it owns.
  • if it's the hyphen - and the -nameorid argument specifies a user, then only the members of the system:administrators group and the associated user can list the groups he or she owns.
  • if it's the uppercase letter "O", then anyone who can access the cell's database server machines can list the groups owned by that user or group. it's giving open invite 🎉

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

pts(1), pts_chown(1), pts_examine(1), pts_setfields(1)

go read those next, bestie, iykyk 📚

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

okay that's the whole page!! this was OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27 — so if you're reading this from the future, hiii, this doc ate and left no crumbs 💅✨ bye bestie, go list some groups 🫶🌸

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