Microsoft KB Archive/98555

= NET MOVE, NET COPY, and File Permissions =

Article ID: 98555

Article Last Modified on 10/31/2006



This article was previously published under Q98555



SUMMARY
NET COPY does not copy permissions along with a file; NET MOVE does. If you want to keep file permissions intact on a file, use NET MOVE. If you want the file to have the permissions of the destination directory, use NET COPY.

DEFAULT PERMISSIONS
A file with default permissions has no explicit Access Control Lists; for security it uses the permissions of the directory to which it belongs. NET COPY copies the file to a directory, where the file is given the permissions of the new directory. NET MOVE moves the file and its original default permissions to a new directory, where the permissions are made explicit.

EXPLICIT PERMISSIONS
If files have explicit ACLs, NET COPY does not copy them when it copies the file; the file inherits the permissions of the destination directory. NET MOVE moves the permissions for the file.

EXAMPLE
For example, the directory C:\TEST1 has permissions USERS : RCWDAP. Two files exist in C:\TEST1, FILE1 and FILE2. They are using the default permissions for the directory. Directory C:\TEST2 has no permissions.

If you use the commands   net copy c:\test1\file1 c:\test2 net move c:\test1\file2 c:\test2 the result is that C:\TEST2\FILE1 has no permissions, and the file C:\TEST2\FILE2 has explicit permissions of USERS : RCWDAP.

If the files had explicit permissions, the end result would be the same. FILE1 would have no permissions because it used the NET COPY command, and FILE2 would have the explicit permissions that it had under the old directory.

Keywords: KB98555

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