● Guestbook File Permissions

204 2026-08-05 note ♈︎ ♄︎

The guestbookA shared guestbook on a tildeverse server lets users add entries through a controlled script rather than direct file editing. The script logs who added entries and when, preventing accidental deletion while maintaining attribution. See guestbook-add-script for the implementation, guestbook-file-permissions… file should be read-only (644) to prevent direct editing.

Users add entries through the add scriptShell script for adding entries to a tildeverse guestbook with logging and attribution. bash #!/bin/sh Guestbook entry script with logging Usage: ./guestbook-add.sh GUESTBOOK="$HOME/guestbook.txt" LOGFILE="$HOME/guestbook.log" DATE=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') USERNAME=$(whoami) Check if guestbook exists if [ ! -f "$GUESTBOOK" ]; then echo… instead, which logs changes and maintains consistent formatting.

chmod 644 ~/guestbook.txt
chmod 666 ~/guestbook.log
chmod 755 ~/guestbook-add.sh

The log file stays writable so the script can track who added what and when.

This prevents accidental deletion, ensures all entries are attributed, and allows for future content filtering in the script.

See Shell Script CGI SecurityShell scripts are risky for CGI because sandboxing backticks against injection is close to impossible. The minimal-cgi-script note explicitly warns against shell script CGI for this reason. For the guestbook system, the shell script runs locally on the tilde server,… for why shell scripts need particular care when handling user input.