Reading the man page on chmod will help but below is a quick guide on permissions, at least basic ones. the ls -l will show you a direct listing in long format of any directory where you issue the command. the output will be something like: -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 112212 Jun 18 17:48 test_file The first part tells you the permissions set on the file called test_file. This is the only part I'm going to address here. Take the -rw-r--r-- and break it up into 4 parts like this: - rw- r-- r-- The first part tells you if this is a file or a directory. if it is a - then it's a file and if it is a d it's a directory. The next 3 parts are the permissions for owner, group, and world. Each of these 3 parts has 3 flags which can be on or off. If they are on you will see a letter and if it is off you will see just a -. The permissions are r for read w for write and x for execute. So if you have a file which like the example -rw-r--r-- it means that the owner of the file has read/write access to the file while the group and the world has only read access to it. If you look at a binary file such as /usr/bin/vacation you will see something like -rwxr-xr-x or -rwx--x--x. This means that the owner root has read/write/execute permissions while everyone else either has read/execute or just execute permissions. Now to setting the permissions accordingly you use the command chmod. There are more than one ways to set this but I will demonstrate my prefered way. Some may like it some may not, but it is easy none-the-less. Let's take the file test-file for example. to create it just touch test_file and bang, you got a file called test file. Let's clear all the permissions by typing chmod 000 test_file This will set the owner/group/world permissions to ---. Below is a chart of the corrisponding number flags when you use chmod. they range from 0 through 7. and when you issue them you do it in sets of 3 digits. first digit is for owner permission, 2nd is for group permission and 3rd is for world permission. 0 --- 1 --x 2 -w- 3 -wx 4 r-- 5 r-x 6 rw- 7 rwx So by looking at the chart above 0 means there are no flags set, no read/write/execute. 1 means execute only, good for binaries. 4 is read only good for making files that everyone can read from but not write to. 5 is good for scripts, must be readable and executable but not writable. 7 has all the flags set read/write/execute. Now, if you want to make this file read/write/execute by owner, but only read/execute by group and read only by world the command would be chmod 754 test_file. If you want to make this file read/write by owner, and readonly by group and nothing for world it would be chmod 640 test_file. As I stated this is a quick guide so you should definately read the man page but maybe this will help you understand permissions a little. --- Raul A. Gallegos mailto:raul at asmodean.net http://www.asmodean.net For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals.. Then something happened, which unleashed the power of our imagination... We learned to talk... On Sat, 6 Oct 2001, Michael wrote: > > High all: > > Now that I can hear and get a Linux box up and running as soon as I get > Slackware 8.0 , > I would like to extend a sincere thanks to those who took the time to lend > a helping hand. > I need to prevail on you guys and gals once again. > Where can I find a good document on permissions and there configurations? > I'll be sticking with my Redhat 5.2 on leashed for my command reference. > I don't think the basic commands has changed much sense the mid nineties. > How ever, I could be mistaken! <grin> ' > > Chow: > Michael > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
