The first group represents the Owner’s permission levels, the second group is for the Group class, and the third represents Others.Įach set of 3 symbols means read, write, execute – in that order.

It can also be a dash symbol if it’s a file, as you can see in the third set of permissions for the Outline.docx file. The first symbol is d, and it stands for directory. Let’s examine the first set of permissions for the Books directory: The permissions are written using (1+) 9 symbols that can be split into triplets for an easier understanding. In our example, the directory contains two other directories and one file. If you’re a complete beginner, check out our article on basic Linux commands. You can navigate to any directory by using the cd command. You can view your permissions for all content in a certain directory if you type the following command in the terminal: So let’s take a look at the symbols behind file permissions first. The easiest method is with numbers, but you should also understand the symbols. You can use both symbols and numbers to change file and directory permissions. Permission Symbols and Numbers Explainedįile permissions are represented numerically or symbolically. For example, you can’t run a script or a program without permission to Execute.īy combining Classes and Permissions, you can control how much access a specific user has to a file or directory. Execute: It’s only important when running or executing files.If you assign this level of access to a directory, you can also remove or add files. Write: It lets you read and edit files.You can’t edit files, and you can’t remove or add any new files to the directory. All you can do is read the file or view the directory’s contents. Read: It gives you limited access to a file or directory.Understanding File Permission LevelsĪs the Owner you can assign three levels of access to your files and directories: It’s up to the Owner to determine what guests users can or can’t do. By default, their level of access is usually restricted. The Others class simply represents guest users that don’t fall into the other two categories. For example, a group of users can be excluded from modifying a file while being granted access to view that file. The Group consists of a number of users that have a certain level of access to a file or directory given by the Owner.

Sudo chmod 777