Linux create file permissions

Linux file default permissions

I just set up a apache server on my Raspberry pi. To make the development easier I shared the /var/www/html folder with samba.

I’m able to create new files from my computer in the Pi folder, but they have the following permission : -rwxrw—- 1 pi pi 52 juin 10 17:54 test.php

With those permissions Apache is not able to read the file.

So each time I need to send the following command to make the file readable by Apache : chmod a+rwx test.php

Then my permission are : -rwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi 52 juin 10 17:54 test.php

So ok, after sending this command, it’s works. But I am trying to find the command to set up the default file permissions to «-rwxrwxrwx » I’m new with linux so maybe it’s easy to fix. Do you have any ideas ?

Thanks a lot, Maxime

3 Answers 3

For changing default permissions of the file created, you can use umask command. umask is user mask which is used whenever a new file is created.

umask is a three digit number with octal base. First digit decides the user permissions, second is for group while third determines the permissions for others.

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File Permissions in Linux/Unix with Example

Linux is a clone of UNIX, the multi-user operating system which can be accessed by many users simultaneously. Linux can also be used in mainframes and servers without any modifications. But this raises security concerns as an unsolicited or malign user can corrupt, change or remove crucial data. For effective security, Linux divides authorization into 2 levels.

1. Ownership
2. Permission

In this Linux file commands tutorial, you will learn-

• Ownership of Linux files
• Permissions
• Changing file/directory permissions with ‘chmod’ command
• Absolute(Numeric) Mode
• Symbolic Mode
• Changing Ownership and Group
• Summary

The concept of permissions and ownership is crucial in Linux. Here, we will discuss both of them. Let us start with the Ownership.

Click here if the video is not accessible

Ownership of Linux files

A user is the owner of the file. By default, the person who created a file becomes its owner. Hence, a user is also sometimes called an owner.

Group

A user- group can contain multiple users. All users belonging to a group will have the same access permissions to the file. Suppose you have a project where a number of people require access to a file. Instead of manually assigning permissions to each user, you could add all users to a group, and assign group permission to file such that only this group members and no one else can read or modify the files.

Other

Any other user who has access to a file. This person has neither created the file, nor he belongs to a usergroup who could own the file. Practically, it means everybody else. Hence, when you set the permission for others, it is also referred as set permissions for the world.

Now, the big question arises how does Linux distinguish between these three user types so that a user ‘A’ cannot affect a file which contains some other user ‘B’s’ vital information/data. It is like you do not want your colleague, who works on your Linux computer, to view your images. This is where Permissions set in, and they define user behavior.

Let us understand the Permission system on Linux.

Permissions

Every file and directory in your UNIX/Linux system has following 3 permissions defined for all the 3 owners discussed above.

• Read: This permission give you the authority to open and read a file. Read permission on a directory gives you the ability to lists its content.
• Write: The write permission gives you the authority to modify the contents of a file. The write permission on a directory gives you the authority to add, remove and rename files stored in the directory. Consider a scenario where you have to write permission on file but do not have write permission on the directory where the file is stored. You will be able to modify the file contents. But you will not be able to rename, move or remove the file from the directory.
• Execute: In Windows, an executable program usually has an extension «.exe» and which you can easily run. In Unix/Linux, you cannot run a program unless the execute permission is set. If the execute permission is not set, you might still be able to see/modify the program code(provided read & write permissions are set), but not run it.

Let’s see this in action

ls — l on terminal gives

Here, we have highlighted ‘-rw-rw-r—‘and this weird looking code is the one that tells us about the permissions given to the owner, user group and the world.

Here, the first ‘—‘ implies that we have selected a file.p>

Else, if it were a directory, d would have been shown.

The characters are pretty easy to remember.

r = read permission
w = write permission
x = execute permission
— = no permission

Let us look at it this way.

The first part of the code is ‘rw-‘. This suggests that the owner ‘Home’ can:

• Read the file
• Write or edit the file
• He cannot execute the file since the execute bit is set to ‘-‘.

By design, many Linux distributions like Fedora, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc. will add users to a group of the same group name as the user name. Thus, a user ‘tom’ is added to a group named ‘tom’.

The second part is ‘rw-‘. It for the user group ‘Home’ and group-members can:

• Read the file
• Write or edit the file

The third part is for the world which means any user. It says ‘r—‘. This means the user can only:

• Read the file

Changing file/directory permissions with ‘chmod’ command

Say you do not want your colleague to see your personal images. This can be achieved by changing file permissions.

We can use the ‘chmod’ command which stands for ‘change mode’. Using the command, we can set permissions (read, write, execute) on a file/directory for the owner, group and the world. Syntax:

There are 2 ways to use the command —

1. Absolute mode
2. Symbolic mode

Absolute(Numeric) Mode

In this mode, file permissions are not represented as characters but a three-digit octal number.

The table below gives numbers for all for permissions types.

Let’s see the chmod command in action.

In the above-given terminal window, we have changed the permissions of the file ‘sample to ‘764’.

‘764’ absolute code says the following:

• Owner can read, write and execute
• Usergroup can read and write
• World can only read

This is shown as ‘-rwxrw-r-

This is how you can change the permissions on file by assigning an absolute number.

Symbolic Mode

In the Absolute mode, you change permissions for all 3 owners. In the symbolic mode, you can modify permissions of a specific owner. It makes use of mathematical symbols to modify the file permissions.

The various owners are represented as —

We will not be using permissions in numbers like 755 but characters like rwx. Let’s look into an example

Changing Ownership and Group

For changing the ownership of a file/directory, you can use the following command:

In case you want to change the user as well as group for a file or directory use the command

Let’s see this in action

In case you want to change group-owner only, use the command

‘chgrp’ stands for change group.

• The file /etc/group contains all the groups defined in the system
• You can use the command «groups» to find all the groups you are a member of

You can use the command newgrp to work as a member a group other than your default group

You cannot have 2 groups owning the same file.

You do not have nested groups in Linux. One group cannot be sub-group of other

x- eXecuting a directory means Being allowed to «enter» a dir and gain possible access to sub-dirs

There are other permissions that you can set on Files and Directories which will be covered in a later advanced tutorial

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