February 24, 2021
4min Read
Tautvydas V.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to change permissions and owners in Linux using chmod and chown commands. By doing so, you’ll have better management in team-based projects.
Linux is a multi-user operating system, so more than one person can work on the same computer at the same time. What’s great, the system can be accessed locally or remotely. That’s why developers often use this OS for group projects.
In such a large environment, we need to set file permissions and ownership, so only specific users can access our data. This way, we can protect sensitive information and prevent unwanted changes from happening.
Fortunately, thanks to chmod and chown commands, it is easy to change permissions and owners in Linux. But before we begin to learn how to use them, make sure you have access to the command line. You can launch it by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.
We will be using the chmod command to change file and folder permissions in Linux. But first, you need to be aware that there are three types of users who can interact with a file:
To see permissions and owners of a specific file, you can run this command:
ls -1 [file name]
The result will look like this:
-rwxrw–rw- 1 user user 0 Jan 19 12:59 myfile.txt
Let’s break the output down to see what each field means:
Let’s say we want to change Linux file permissions from -rwxrw-rw- to -rwx-r–r–. Simply enter this line:
chmod 744 [file name]
By executing this command, the owner can read, write, and execute the file (rwx). However, group and others are only allowed to read (r–).
At this point, you might wonder why we are using a three-digit number (744) after the chmod command.
The number determines the file permissions. Read, write, and execute are represented by a numerical value:
So if you want to give all permissions (rwx) to a user, we need to add read (4), write (2), and execute (1). Therefore, rwx is equal to 7.
Meanwhile, since group and others are only allowed to read the file, we give them 4.
Remember, the owner’s permissions always come first, then followed by group and others. That’s why we enter 744.
If you don’t want to give any permission to a user, enter 0 into the corresponding spot.
Here is a list of the most common file permissions:
Common permissions for directories:
To change the owner of a file and folder, we will be using the chown command. This is the basic syntax:
chown [owner/group owner] [file name]
Let’s say we have a file named “myfile.txt.” If we want to set the owner of the file to “hostinger,” we can use this command:
chown hostinger myfile.txt
However, if we want to change the group owner of the file to “clients,” we’ll enter this line instead:
chown :clients demo.txt
Notice that we use a colon (:) before “clients” to indicate that it is a group owner.
Now, to change both the owner and group owner at the same time, the syntax would be like this:
chown hostinger:clients myfile.txt
The main rule is that the owner should come before the group owner, and they have to be separated by a colon.
Option is an additional command to change the output of a command.
One of the most popular options that you can combine with chmod and chown is -R (Recursive). This Linux option allows you to change permissions or owners of all files and subdirectories inside a specific directory.
If you want to use an option, you have to place it right after the chmod/chown command.
Take a look at this example:
chown -R 755 /etc/myfiles
After you enter the above command, the owner can read, write, and execute all files and subdirectories inside the /etc/myfiles directory. The command also gives read and execute permissions to group and others.
Be extra careful with this option. Improper use of the command may cause critical failure, and it requires a great deal of work to reverse the changes.
Aside from -R, the following options are often used with chmod and chown commands:
In this tutorial, you have learned how to use chmod and chown commands to change permissions and owners in Linux. We also provided the basic syntax and several useful options that you can combine with either of these commands.
To learn more about Linux command line, you can read our article on basic bash commands.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment below!
January 26 2018
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January 26 2018
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January 27 2018
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Replied on February 15 2018
Awesome! I'm glad to hear that you found our tutorial useful! :)
Gediminas B.
Replied on February 15 2018
Sure! You're welcome to use our articles as a reference as long as your provide the necessary sources and credit! ;)