User Management

This article is part of the Advanced User's Guide. The user management defines which permissions are required by a user to perform a specific database command.

Permissions are only relevant in the client/server architecture: the [Standalone Mode] and the [GUI] is run with admin permissions.

In the permission hierarchy below, the existing permissions are illustrated. A higher permission includes all lower permissions. For example, all users who have the WRITE permission assigned will also be able to execute commands requiring READ permission. Next, local permissions exist, which can be assigned to single databases. Local permission have a higher priority and override global permissions.

All global permissions are stored in the file .basexperm, and local permissions are encoded in the database meta data (inf.basex).

Permissions hierarchy

User names must follow the valid names constraints.

Commands

Admin permissions are needed to execute all of the following commands:

Creating user 'test' (password will be entered on command line):

> CREATE USER test

Change user 'test' password (password will be entered on command line):

> ALTER USER test

As global permissions, you can set 'none', 'read', 'write', 'create' and 'admin':

Grant all permissions to user 'test':

> GRANT admin TO test

Valid local permissions are 'none', 'read' and 'write':

Granting write permission on database 'factbook' to user 'test':

> GRANT write ON factbook TO test

Note: Local permissions overwrite global permissions. As a consequence, the 'test' user will only be allowed to access (i.e., read and write) the 'factbook' database. If no local permissions are set, the global rights are inherited.

Showing global permissions:

> SHOW USERS

Showing local permissions on database 'factbook':

> SHOW USERS ON factbook

Dropping of user 'test':

> DROP USER test