New Solaris ACL Model

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

The main differences of the new Solaris ACL model are as follows:

• Based on the NFSv4 specification and are similar to NT-style ACLs.

• Much more granular set of access privileges.

• Set and displayed with the chmod and ls commands rather than the setfacl and getfacl commands.

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

For more information about using ACLs with ZFS files, see Chapter 8, Using ACLs to Protect ZFS Files.