Unix Permissions

Understanding how file permissions work on unix filesystems is required to successfully administer a modern web server. If you do not already know what chmod and chown do, you should follow the material below to familiarize yourself with how permissions work in unix and how to change ownership of files and directories.

Goals/Objectives/Outcomes

• Understand file ownership
• Understand basic file/directory attributes (read, write, search, exec)
• Understand how unix groups work
• Understand User, Group and World permissions
• Understand typical permissions
• Understand how to examine permissions
• Understand how to use chmod
• Understand how to use chown

Reference Material

• http://www.perlfect.com/articles/chmod.shtml
• http://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix/unix-file-permission.htm
• http://permissions-calculator.org/
• http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Permissions.html

Measures of Success

Participant understands how to inspect and set the ownership and permissions of files and directories and how to add users to groups. Participant should understand how to look up the appropriate set of permissions to pass to chmod