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Cover image for Living in the Shell #24; chmod (Modify file/directory permissions)
Babak K. Shandiz
Babak K. Shandiz

Posted on • Originally published at babakks.github.io on

Living in the Shell #24; chmod (Modify file/directory permissions)

#productivity #linux #bash #devops

chmod 🔐

Modifies file/directory permissions (See here or here for more details).

Permission expressions are mostly formatted as [ugoa][+-=][rwx]:

Symbol Meaning
r Read
w Write
x Execute
Symbol Meaning
u User (owner of the file/directory)
g Group (of the file/directory)
o Other users/groups
a All users/groups

Grant all permissions to everyone; a+rwx or 777 

chmod a+rwx some-file
# or
chmod 777 some-file
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Make a file executable for everyone +x 

chmod +x some-file
# or
chmod a+x some-file
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Make a file executable only for the User (owner) u+x 

chmod u+x some-file
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Disallow Group and Others to read/write/execute go-rwx 

chmod go-rwx some-file
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Apply the same User (owner) permissions to the Group =u 

chmod g=u some-file
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Rewrite permissions for the Group and Others = 

chmod go=rw some-file
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Clear permissions for the Group and Others = 

chmod go= some-file
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Clear all permissions = 

chmod a= some-file
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About Living in the Shell

Obsessed with doing things in the shell, I’ve decided to share my daily struggles on living in the shell as terse but informative posts.

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