Unit 6

File
Permissions

Objectives
After completing this unit, students should be able to:
List the basic file permissions
Change the basic file permissions using both the
octal and symbolic formats

Long Listing of Files

The ls command with the -l option can be used to obtain more
information about the files in a directory.
$ ls -l
drwxrwxr-x
drwxrwxr-x
-rwxrwxr-x
-rwxrwxr-x

permission
bits

2
2
1
2

team01
team01
team01
team01

staff 1024
staff
512
staff
320
staff
144

Aug
Feb
Feb
Feb

12
18
22
22

10:16 c
09:55 doc
07:30 suba
16:30 test1

File Protection/Permissions
rwx

rwx

rwx

user

group

others

r = read

w = write

x = execute

For an ordinary file:

r => Can look at the contents of a file
w => Can change or delete the contents of a file
x => Can use the file name as a command (r is also needed)

For a directory:
r => Can find out what files are in the directory
w => Can create/remove files in the directory (x is needed)
x => Has permission to be in the directory
(that is, cd to the directory or access files from the
directory)

Changing Permissions (Symbolic Notation)

chmod mode filename
u = owner of the file
g = owner's group
o = other users on the system
a = all

+ : add permissions
- : remove permissions
= : Clears permissions and sets to mode specified

$ ls -l newfile
-rw-r--r-1 team01

staff 58 Apr 21

16:06 newfile

$ chmod go+w newfile

$ ls -l newfile
-rw-rw-rw1 team01

staff 58 Apr 21

16:06 newfile

$ chmod a+x newfile

$ ls -l newfile
-rwxrwxrwx
1 team01

staff 58 Apr 21

16:06 newfile

$ chmod o-rwx newfile

$ ls -l newfile
-rwxrwx--1 team01

staff 58 Apr 21

16:06 newfile

Changing Permissions (Octal Notation)

File and directory permissions can be specified in the symbolic
syntax or as an octal number:
Symbolic
Binary
Octal

User
rwx
111
4+2+1
7

Group
rw110
4+2+0
6

Others
r-100
4+0+0
4

To change permissions so the owner and group have read and

write permissions and others read only:
$ ls -l newfile
-rw-r--r-1 team01

staff 58 Apr 21

16:06 newfile

$ chmod 664 newfile

$ ls -l newfile
-rw-rw-r-1 team01

staff 65 Apr 22

17:06 newfile

Default File Permissions

The default protections for newly created files and directories are:

File

-rw-r--r--

644

Directory

drwxr-xr-x

755

These default settings may be changed by changing the umask value.

umask
umask specifies what permission bits will be set on a
new file or directory when created. It is an octal
number that is used to determine what permission bits a
file or directory is created with:
New Directory: 777 - 022:
New File:
666 - 022:

755
644

=> rwxr-xr-x
=> rw-r--r--

The default value of 022 is set in /etc/security/user. It

can be changed for all users or for a specific user.

Activity: Personal Directories

Activity

Write Permission on a Directory

$ ls -ld /home/team01
drwxrwxrwx 2 team01 staff 512
$ ls -l /home/team01/file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 team01 staff 1300

July 29

9:40

team01

July 30

10:30 file1

$ whoami
team02
$ vi /home/team01/file1
file1: The file has read permission only
$ vi myfile1
Ha! Ha! I changed this file. Figure out how.
$ mv myfile1 /home/team01/file1
override protection 644 for file1? y
$ cat /home/team01/file1
Ha! Ha! I changed this file. Figure out how.

Function/Permissions Required
Command

Source Directory

Source File

Target Directory

cd

N/A

N/A

ls

N/A

N/A

ls -l

r, x

N/A

N/A

mkdir

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

cat, pg, more

x
w (parent)
x
w (parent)
x

N/A

mv

x, w

NONE

x, w

cp

x, w

touch

x, w *

NONE

N/A

rm

x, w

NONE

N/A

rmdir

Next Step ...

Exercise 5

Unit 6: Checkpoint
The following questions are for a file called reporta which has the following
set of permissions: rwxr-x r-x
1. What is the mode in octal?
_________________________________________________________
2. Change mode to rwxr- - r- - using the symbolic format.
_________________________________________________________
3. Repeat the above operation using the octal format.
_________________________________________________________
4. Question four is based on the following listing. Assume that the directory
jobs contains the file joblog.
$ ls -lR
total 8
drwxr-xr-x

judy

finance

512

June 5

11:08

jobs

./jobs:
total 8
-rw-rw-r--

judy

finance

100

June 6

12:16

joblog

Can Fred, who is a member of the finance group, modify the file joblog?

Unit 6: Checkpoint (Cont)

5. Question five is based on the following listing. Assume that the
directory jobs contains the directory work, which in turn contains the
file joblog.
$ ls -lR
total 8
drwxrwxr-x

judy

finance

512

June 5

11:08

jobs

./jobs:
total 8
drwxrw-r-x

judy

finance

512

June 5

11:10

work

./jobs/work:
total 8
-rw-rw-r-- 1

judy

finance

100

June 6

12:16

joblog

Can Fred, who is a member of the finance group, modify the file
joblog?

Unit 6: Checkpoint (Cont)

6. Question six is based on the following listing. Assume that the directory
jobs contains the directory work, which in turn contains the file joblog.

$ ls -lR
total 8
drwxr-xr-x

judy

finance

512

June 5

11:08

jobs

./jobs:
total 8
drwxrwxrwx

judy

finance

512

June 5

11:10

work

./jobs/work:
total 8
-rw-rw-r-- 1

judy

finance

100

June 6

12:16

joblog

Can Fred, who is a member of the finance group, copy the file joblog to
his home directory?

Summary
Basic file permissions can be listed using the ls -l
command
chmod grants or removes read, write and execute
permissions for three classes of users: user, group and
others
The permissions used with the chmod command can be
defined in symbolic or octal format
The umask specifies the permissions for new files and
directories