New Solaris ACL Model

ZFS implements a new ACL model. Previous versions of the Solaris OS only supported an ACL model that was primarily based on the POSIX ACL draft specification. The POSIX-draft based ACLs are used to protect UFS files. A new model that is based on the NFSv4 specification is used to protect ZFS files.

The main features of the new ACL model are as follows:

• Is based on the NFSv4 specification and the new ACLs that are similar to NT-style ACLs.

• Provides a more granular set of access privileges.

• Uses the chmod and ls commands rather than the setfacl and getfacl commands to set and display ACLs.

• Provides richer inheritance semantics for designating how access privileges are applied from directory to subdirectories, and so on.

The recently revised chmod(1) man page adds many new examples that demonstrate usage with ZFS. The acl(5) man page has an overview of the new ACL model. In addition, the Solaris ZFS Administration Guide provides extensive examples of using ACLs to protect ZFS files.