System and method for managing arbitrary subsets of access control lists in a computer network

摘要

A system and method for managing access control lists (ACL) in a data processing system with a hierarchical object structure permits manipulation of an arbitrary set of ACLs and individual entries within an ACL. A set of actions covering all possible entry updates provides flexibility in manipulating ACLs and removing latent ambiguity. By permitting operation on the arbitrary set of ACLs rather than a resource tree, heterogeneous trees remain after the apply function. A mechanism is provided for identifying specific failures of ACL updates by resource name and error, thereby permitting correction without necessitating re-running the entire apply function.