Linux Chmod Permissions Cheat Sheet

Updated January 31, 2017     9 Comments
Originally posted October 13, 2014

Shell and Bash

Set the permissions for a file or directory by using the chmod command. Each row has 2 examples, one for setting that permission for a file, and one for a directory named ‘dir’. This works in any linux distro, such as Ubuntu, etc.

Permission Command Examples Description
rwx rwx rwx chmod 777 filename
chmod -R 777 dir		 Anybody can read, write, execute.
rwx rwx r-x chmod 775 filename
chmod -R 775 dir		 Owner & Group can read, write, execute. Everyone else can read, execute.
rwx rwx r– chmod 774 filename
chmod -R 774 dir		 Owner & Group can read, write, execute. Everyone else can read.
rwx r-x r-x chmod 755 filename
chmod -R 755 dir		 Owner can read, write, execute. Everyone else can read, execute.
rwx — — chmod 700 filename
chmod -R 700 dir		 Owner can read, write, execute. No one else has any rights.
rw- rw- rw- chmod 666 filename
chmod -R 666 dir		 Everyone can read, write.
rw- rw- r– chmod 664 filename
chmod -R 664 dir		 Owner & Group can read, write. Everyone else can read.
rw- r– r– chmod 644 filename
chmod -R 644 dir		 Owner can read, write. Everyone else can read.

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We've 9 Responses

  5. November 8th, 2018 at 10:40 am

    This is a good list for the basics. It would be even better if you expanded it to include examples for changing the suid, sgid, and sticky-bit flags.

    Reply ↓
    Roy Guisinger

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