WB4 Ch4: Directory Ownerships & Permissions

3 directory permission types:

r (read) : list directory contents
w (write) : add or remove files to/from directory
x (execute): search for a known file in directory.
WB4 Ch4: Directory Ownerships & Permissions
In RHEL, a users home directory:

is protected from searching by other users
has default permissions rwx------.
WB4 Ch4: Directory Ownerships & Permissions
A ~/pub directory:

overcomes limitations of /tmp
files removed if not accessed for 10 days
is a permanent publicly accessible location
requires granting x permission to ~
WB4 Ch4: Directory Ownerships & Permissions
Remember to protect your Homes other subdirectories:

Ex: chmod o-rx ~/mail

Without a directorys r permission, users can NOT ls
the directorys contents. But, users can still guess the
contents, if they have the x permission for the directory.
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
Whats the effect of:

chmod ug=rx foo

user and group owner permissions set to rx
if user and group owner had w, it is removed
others permissions remain as is.
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
When using octal notation with chmod, use a 3 digit
octal number, 1 digit for each of the 3 access classes.



Ex: chmod 664 myFile
user
owner
group
owner
other
Permission Binary Value Octal Value
r 100 4
w 010 2
x 001 1
- 000 0
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
Permissions have corresponding octal & binary values.
Permissions for
an access class
Binary Octal
--- 000 0 = 0 + 0 + 0
--x 001 1 = 0 + 0 + 1
-w- 010 2 = 0 + 2 + 0
-wx 011 3 = 0 + 2 + 1
r-- 100 4 = 4 + 0 + 0
r-x 101 5 = 4 + 0 + 1
rw- 110 6 = 4 + 2 + 0
rwx 111 7 = 4 + 2 + 1
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
Each digit in the 3 digit octal number indicates which
permissions are to be granted a particular access class.
Example #1:
Command Line foos Resulting
Permissions
chmod 662 foo rw-rw--w-
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
6 = 4 + 2 + 0 = rw- for (u)ser owner
6 = 4 + 2 + 0 = rw- for (g)roup owner
2 = 0 + 2 + 0 = -w- for (o)ther
Example #2: (allowing others to search a home
directory to access a publicly accessible subdirectory)
Command Line pubs Resulting
Permissions
chmod 701 ~ rwx-----x
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
7 = 4 + 2 + 1 = rwx for (u)ser owner
0 = 0 + 0 + 0 = --- for (g)roup owner
1 = 0 + 0 + 1 = --x for (o)ther
Example #3: (assigning default directory permissions)
Command Line foos Resulting
Permissions
chmod 775 foo rwxrwxr-x
WB4 Ch5: chmod Revisited: Octal Notation
7 = 4 + 2 + 1 = rwx for (u)ser owner
7 = 4 + 2 + 1 = rwx for (g)roup owner
5 = 4 + 0 + 1 = r-x for (o)ther
WB4 Ch6: Controlling Default Permissions: umask
When a new file is created in Linux, the kernel assigns
it a set of default permissions:
Directory file Ordinary file
Kernel default permissions rwxrwxrwx rw-rw-rw-
WB4 Ch6: Controlling Default Permissions: umask
Directory file
Kernel default permissions
Default umask
--------------------------------------
Effective default permissions
rwxrwxrwx 777
w 002
------------------------------
rwxrwxrx 775
Since we often want a different set of permissions than
the kernels default set, we can apply a umask value
(default is 002 for ordinary users):
WB4 Ch6: Controlling Default Permissions: umask
Ordinary file
Kernel default permissions
Default umask
--------------------------------------
Effective default permissions
rwrwrw 666
w 002
------------------------------
rwrwr 664
Since we often want a different set of permissions than
the kernels default set, we can apply a umask value
(default is 002 for ordinary users):
WB4 Ch6: Controlling Default Permissions: umask
To determine your shells current umask value:

umask

To change your shells umask value for the duration that
the shell is open:
umask NNN (where NNN is an octal number)

To automatically change the bash shells umask value
upon login:
add umask NNN to ~/.bashrc