Posted On May 27, 2020

Unix / Linux File Permissions Cheat Sheet

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General Permissions Overview:

Permissions (base)

1 – execute
2 – write
4 – read

Permissions (octal)

3 (1+2) – execute and write
6 (2+4) – write and read
7 (1+2+4) – execute, write, read

Permissions (letter representation)

Mode Name Description
r read read a file or list a directory’s contents
w write write to a file or directory
x execute execute a file or recurse a directory tree

Position of the digit in value

1 – owner permissions value
2 – users permissions in the file group
3 – users NOT in the file group

Permissions reference table

# Permission rwx Binary
7 read, write and execute rwx 111
6 read and write rw- 110
5 read and execute r-x 101
4 read only r– 100
3 write and execute -wx 011
2 write only -w- 010
1 execute only –x 001
0 none 000

Operators:

Operator Description
+ adds the specified modes to the specified classes
removes the specified modes from the specified classes
= the modes specified are to be made the exact modes for the specified classes
Simple Examples:
chmod 600 /path/to/file – owner can read and write - nobody else can access
chmod 666 /path/to/file – all can read and write
chmod 700 /path/to/file – owner can read, write, and execute - nobody else can
chmod 777 /path/to/file – all can read, write, and execute
chmod a-r /path/to/file - remove read permissions to all classes
chmod a+rx /path/to/file - add read and execute permissions to all classes
Get permissions of all files in a directory in octal format
[cuilo@testbox ~]# stat -c "%a %n" /etc/ssh/*
644 /etc/ssh/moduli
644 /etc/ssh/ssh_config
755 /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d
600 /etc/ssh/sshd_config
640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
644 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
644 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
640 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
644 /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
List all files in a directory
[coco@testbox ~]$ ls -la ~
total 36
drwx------. 15 coco coco 4096 May 27 09:47 .
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 17 May 26 17:41 ..
-rw-------. 1 coco coco 7068 May 27 10:28 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--. 1 coco coco 18 Nov 8 2019 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--. 1 coco coco 141 Nov 8 2019 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--. 1 coco coco 312 Nov 8 2019 .bashrc
drwx------. 10 coco coco 232 May 26 21:43 .cache
drwx------. 11 coco coco 215 May 26 21:43 .config
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Documents
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Downloads
-rw-------. 1 coco coco 16 May 26 17:46 .esd_auth
-rw-------. 1 coco coco 2170 May 27 09:47 .ICEauthority
drwx------. 3 coco coco 19 May 26 21:43 .local
drwxr-xr-x. 4 coco coco 39 May 26 17:35 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Music
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Pictures
drwxrw----. 3 coco coco 19 May 26 21:43 .pki
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Public
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Templates
drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Videos
-rw-------. 1 coco coco 2004 May 26 23:51 .viminfo

Explanations of the red lines (ls -la ~) and (drwxr-xr-x. 2 coco coco 6 May 26 21:43 Desktop):

ls list a directory
-l as a list output
-a show all, including hidden items
d first character of a line to denote whether the item is a directory
first character of a line to denote whether the item is a single file
l

first character of a line to denote whether the item is a symbolic link

rwxr-xr-x

first group of three letters: owner can read/write/execute
second group of three letters: group can read/execute
third group of three letters: everybody else can read/execute

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