How to Change File Permissions in Ubuntu

How do I change permissions for a folder and its subfolders/files?

The other answers are correct, in that chmod -R 755 will set these permissions to all files and subfolders in the tree. But why on earth would you want to? It might make sense for the directories, but why set the execute bit on all the files?

I suspect what you really want to do is set the directories to 755 and either leave the files alone or set them to 644. For this, you can use the find command. For example:

To change all the directories to 755 (drwxr-xr-x):

find /opt/lampp/htdocs -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

To change all the files to 644 (-rw-r--r--):

find /opt/lampp/htdocs -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Some splainin': ^{(thanks @tobbez)}

chmod 755 {} specifies the command that will be executed by find for each directory
chmod 644 {} specifies the command that will be executed by find for each file
{} is replaced by the path
; the semicolon tells find that this is the end of the command it's supposed to execute
\; the semicolon is escaped, otherwise it would be interpreted by the shell instead of find

Changing File Permissions Linux

chmod

The chmod command is used to change the permissions of a file or directory. To use it, you specify the desired permission settings and the file or files that you wish to modify. There are two ways to specify the permissions, but I am only going to teach one way.

It is easy to think of the permission settings as a series of bits (which is how the computer thinks about them). Here's how it works:

rwx rwx rwx = 111 111 111

rw- rw- rw- = 110 110 110

rwx --- --- = 111 000 000

and so on...

rwx = 111 in binary = 7

rw- = 110 in binary = 6

r-x = 101 in binary = 5

r-- = 100 in binary = 4

777

(rwxrwxrwx) No restrictions on permissions. Anybody may do anything. Generally not a desirable setting.

755

(rwxr-xr-x) The file's owner may read, write, and execute the file. All others may read and execute the file. This setting is common for programs that are used by all users.

700

(rwx------) The file's owner may read, write, and execute the file. Nobody else has any rights. This setting is useful for programs that only the owner may use and must be kept private from others.

666

(rw-rw-rw-) All users may read and write the file.

644

(rw-r--r--) The owner may read and write a file, while all others may only read the file. A common setting for data files that everybody may read, but only the owner may change.

600

(rw-------) The owner may read and write a file. All others have no rights. A common setting for data files that the owner wants to keep private.

Directory permissions

The chmod command can also be used to control the access permissions for directories. In most ways, the permissions scheme for directories works the same way as they do with files. However, the execution permission is used in a different way. It provides control for access to file listing and other things. Here are some useful settings for directories:

777

(rwxrwxrwx) No restrictions on permissions. Anybody may list files, create new files in the directory and delete files in the directory. Generally not a good setting.

755

(rwxr-xr-x) The directory owner has full access. All others may list the directory, but cannot create files nor delete them. This setting is common for directories that you wish to share with other users.

700

(rwx------) The directory owner has full access. Nobody else has any rights. This setting is useful for directories that only the owner may use and must be kept private from others.

Change file permission in ubuntu

Try the following command:

sudo chmod 700 -R /etc/

It will set it to root

Chmod 777 to a folder and all contents

If you are going for a console command it would be:

chmod -R 777 /www/store. The -R (or --recursive) options make it recursive.

Or if you want to make all the files in the current directory have all permissions type:

chmod -R 777 ./

If you need more info about chmod command see: File permission

How to Get Shell Script to Change File Permissions?

This is a permission issue. User www-data cannot write a file in your home directory.

Assuming your home directory is owned by user "me" and group "me", you will have to set permissions on your home directory so your group can write into it (it should already). Then add user www-data in that group.

Important note

If you put permission 777 on your home directory, then every user on the system can write into that directory! You should put 775 or 770. Only you and your group should be able to write (and maybe read also, depending on your requirement). Not important if this is your own machine, critical if this is a machine with many users.

Remember permissions are: user group others. 777 is rwx for all 3. It can be dangerous.

File permission in ubuntu

The user you are logging in as is not the www-data user or a member of the www-data group.

I set things up on my servers so that the user I log in as owns the files/directories, and a webuser group is the owning group, perms are set to 750/640. You can automagically keep the owning group the same across all files/directories uploaded to/created on the server by making the top level web directory setgid.

drwxr-s---  4 debbie www-data  4096 Oct  6  2015 /var/www-debbie.example.com

If the webserver needs to write files, create the directory and change the permissions on it

sudo mkdir /var/www-debbie.example.com/writeable
sudo chmod 770 /var/www-debbie.example.com/writeable

If you haven't done the setgid thing, then fix the ownership

sudo chown debbie.www-data /var/www-debbie.example.com/writeable

And there ya go, the web server user can write to it.

drwxrws---  4 debbie www-data  4096 Oct  6  2015 /var/www-debbie.example.com/writeable

Configuring permissions to folder in ubuntu in order to prevent user's from removing files of others

On the internet, I found this URL, mentioning a "sticky bit", which might solve your problem.