# How can user check for write permissions? (Without control permissions)

**URL:** <https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247>\
**Category:** Linked Data\
**Created:** [April 25, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247 "2021-04-25T18:58:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jenda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/da6949/32.png) [@jenda](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jenda)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247/1 "2021-04-25T18:58:54Z")

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Hi,  
I am trying to create an app, where part of the functionality is access management to specific documents via ACL files.

I am now at a stage, where a user with Control permissions is able to read an ACL file and parse the permissions to find out, who has what level of access.

Now I would like to implement an editing functionality, that is only enabled for users, that have the Write access. The problem is, that a user with only read + write access is not allowed to read the ACL file, therefore they are not able to check if they have write access.

Of course I could try to write to the file to find out, if the user has the permissions to do so, but I would really like to use a more elegant solution.

Any ideas, how could I achieve this functionality?

I am using `@inrupt/solid-react-components` to read the ACL files, so using something from this package would be preferred, but any other methods are welcome as well.

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**Author:** ![jeffz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jeffz/32/600_2.png) [@jeffz](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jeffz)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247/2 "2021-04-25T19:06:24Z")

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No one except those with Control access can read or write to an .acl file. So it is pointless for someone with only read+write to check if they have write access, because if they don’t have Control access, they can’t write anyway.

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**Author:** ![jeffz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jeffz/32/600_2.png) [@jeffz](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jeffz)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247/3 "2021-04-25T19:07:55Z")

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Also, the wac-allow header should show exactly what rights an agent has.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jenda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/da6949/32.png) [@jenda](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jenda)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-can-user-check-for-write-permissions-without-control-permissions/4247/4 "2021-04-25T19:10:18Z")

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Sorry, the initial description is maybe a little chaotic, English is not my first language.

The user with is viewing a file example.ttl, and I need to find out, whether they have write access to this particular file.

Thanks for the advice with the WAC-allow header, this seems like the elegant solution I was looking for.