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In related questions I see instructions on how to set permissions. What is the default OS X permission for one's home directory. How is mine different? (See snippet):

jbenniMac:~ jbenni$ pwd
/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jbenni
jbenniMac:~ jbenni$ ls -l ..
total 0
drwxrwx---@ 101 jbenni  staff  3434 May 14 17:15 jbenni
jbenniMac:~ jbenni$ mkdir test
mkdir: test: Permission denied
jbenniMac:~ jbenni$

Clarification for comment:

jbenniMac:~ jbenni$ ls -ledO@ /Users/jbenni
drwxr-xr-x+ 13 jbenni  staff  - 442 Mar  9 15:52 /Users/jbenni
 0: group:everyone deny delete

Having (or appearing to have) two Home folders isn't intentional. Several years and several versions of the OS ago, I did move my home folder to a different volume when I setup an SSD with just system and Apps. [I used the GUI tool in "Users and Groups" (Opt-click on name, select "Advanced Options..." browse to set the home directory).]

The PWD directory (on "Macintosh HD" volume) is the Desktop dir that I actually see in the Finder.

Note: I added a new user and tested it. Although the new account permissions and ownership appeared to match the problem account, Terminal worked on the new account without permission issues.

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  • 1
    Please post the results of ls -ledO@ /Users/jbenni
    – fd0
    Commented May 15, 2016 at 13:26
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    Can you explain why you have two home folders?
    – fd0
    Commented May 15, 2016 at 19:11
  • I revised the question to explain that. I suspect you've picked up something significant, but I'm still not seeing the problem clearly. Any ideas?
    – jbbenni
    Commented May 15, 2016 at 22:00
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    Please post the results of these commands. (This should be the last information needed). ls -ledO@ "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jbenni" and mount.
    – fd0
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 13:55
  • Great suggestion. The ACLs look funky to me, but I've no idea how to fix. Here's the ls output: drwxr-xr-x@ 101 jbenni staff - 3434 May 15 18:22 /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jbenni com.apple.FinderInfo 32 com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot 50 com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot 50 0: group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown 1: group:everyone deny delete 2: user:admin allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
    – jbbenni
    Commented May 16, 2016 at 20:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The ACL on /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jbenni is the problem. Remove all three entries with this command:

chmod -N "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jbenni"
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  • Brilliant! And thanks so much. This fixed the problem with mkdir permissions, and even makes sense. I've never mucked with ACL's, but I read they can be created in the Finder's Get Info panel on permissions. I must have done that at some point. Great troubleshooting!
    – jbbenni
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 0:46
  • It turned out to be useful to use Finder's Get-Info and the Permissions panel's Gear icon to "Apply to enclosed items...", since subdirectories also had the funky ACLs.
    – jbbenni
    Commented May 17, 2016 at 22:50
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I would simply create another account and go look into that user's home folder to see what the default permissions are. That's probably your best way of comparing account rights.

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