I have asked this on askubuntu but didn't get a single response in days, so I will try it here.

I have directory structure like this:

• /path/dir1 - all users in group1 must have rwx permissions, including subdirs and newly created dirs
• /path/dir1/dir2 - also users in group2 must have rwx permissions

So what I tried is that I used ACL.

getfacl /path/dir1

# file: /path/dir1
# owner: root
# group: nogroup
user::rwx
group::---
group:group1:rwx
mask::rwx
other::---
default:user::rwx
default:group::---
default:group:group1:rwx
default:mask::rwx
default:other::---


getfacl /path/dir1/dir2

# file: /path/dir1/dir2
# owner: root
# group: nogroup
user::rwx
group::---
group:group1:rwx
group:group2:rwx
mask::rwx
other::---
default:user::rwx
default:group::---
default:group:group1:rwx
default:group:group2:rwx
default:mask::rwx
default:other::---

That shows that I have granted rwx to group1 in /path/dir1 and rwx to group1 and group2 in /path/dir1/dir2.

Now it gets interesting. Let's assume, that user2 is member of group2. If I issue commands as user2:

cd /path/dir1/dir2
mkdir foo

Then folder is succesfully created.

However, if I do this:

mkdir /path/dir1/dir2/foo

I get permission denied error.

I have tried extensively to resolve the problem. What I have found is that ACL is to blame. If I add permissions to group2 in /path/dir1 it starts to work. Also if I completely remove /path/dir1 ACL it starts to work.

Obviously I am missing something VERY basic. I don't have much experience with linux, but this is a no-brainer on Windows. I have spent way too many hours to resolve this basic requirement.

If you need more information, I will try to update the question, so feel free to ask!