Bug #4154 Unable to drop tables - possible directory permission bug

Description:
I am unable to drop database tables without modifying directory permissions. This is a fresh 
binary install (without installer). I've checked the MD5 checksum (openssl md5 ...), chowned to 
mysql and chgrped to mysql.

Here are the system details:

local/mysql 52 $ pwd
/usr/local/mysql
local/mysql 53 $ uname -v
Darwin Kernel Version 6.8: Wed Sep 10 15:20:55 PDT 2003; root:xnu/xnu-344.49.obj~2/
RELEASE_PPC 
local/mysql 54 $ ./bin/mysqld --version
./bin/mysqld  Ver 4.0.20-standard for apple-darwin6.8 on powerpc (Official MySQL-standard 
binary)
local/mysql 55 $ ps -auxww | grep mysqld
mysql    463   0.0  0.1     1828    588 std  S     4:04PM   0:00.07 sh ./bin/mysqld_safe
mysql    487   0.0  1.8    26304  11964 std  S     4:04PM   0:03.99 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld
local/mysql 56 $ cat `which mysqld_safe`
#!/bin/sh
cd /usr/local/mysql/
nohup ./bin/mysqld_safe "$@" > /tmp/mysql$$.out 2>&1 &

How to repeat:
local/mysql 57 $ mysqladmin -u root -p create foo
Enter password: 
local/mysql 58 $ ls -ld data/foo
drwx------  2 mysql  mysql  68 Jun 15 16:23 data/foo/
local/mysql 59 $ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 9 to server version: 4.0.20-standard

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> use foo;
Database changed
mysql> create table bar ( id integer not null primary key, name varchar(32) );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> drop table bar;
ERROR 1051: Unknown table 'bar'
mysql> drop table foo.bar;
ERROR 1051: Unknown table 'bar'
mysql> exit
Bye
local/mysql 60 $ sudo chmod 770 data/foo
Password:
local/mysql 61 $ ls -ld data/foo
drwxrwx---  5 mysql  mysql  170 Jun 15 16:24 data/foo/
local/mysql 62 $ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 10 to server version: 4.0.20-standard

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> drop table foo.bar;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> exit
Bye
local/mysql 63 $

I tested the 4.0.20-standard binaries on Mac OS X 10.3.4
without problems. Even if i remove all group rights from
the data directory all still works fine.

Perhaps it has something to do with my installation. Do you have any suggestions of where to 
poke?

All the information you pasted seems to be ok,
my only idea is that it might be a permission
bug in Mac OS X 10.2.8 that is fixed in 10.3.4 ...

It has to do with the script that I use to run mysqld_safe

local/mysql 15 $ ls -ld /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe 
-rwsr-sr-x  1 mysql  mysql  86 Jun 12  2003 /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe*
local/mysql 16 $ cat !$
cat /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe
#!/bin/sh
cd /usr/local/mysql/
nohup ./bin/mysqld_safe "$@" > /tmp/mysql$$.out 2>&1 &

If I explicitly ( cd /usr/local/mysql ; ./bin/mysqld_safe ) as myself, then it works.

If I run /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe as the mysql user, then it works.

But if I run /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe as myself, then it fails
(I've tried the /usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe script with both 4755 and 6755 permissions).

Thanks for you help.

Ok, thats it then. With our default permission settings
you always have to start the mysqld server as the same
user. That's what mysqld_safe's --user option is for ...