Knowledge base
File permissions explained
Generally, a script’s installation instructions or readme file will tell you that you need to change permissions on or chmod a file/directory so that the script can execute or write to the file/directory. You’ll need to make these changes through the file manager or through FTP.
Usually programs will display permission in an odd way such as this: _rwxrwxrwx.
In number form that’s 777. You may or may not have the _ at the beginning. If you do, that means it’s a file that has those permissions. If it’s a directory you’ll see a d there (drwxrwxrwx) instead of the underscore.
Each group of 3 characters are the permissions for the user, the group and finally others (everyone else). In addition, each group of 3 characters make up one number. The following is what each letter stands for:
- r (read) = 4
- w (write) = 2
- x (execute) = 1
To give some examples of some common permission converted from the letters to numbers (with the first character defining file/directory removed to avoid some confusion):
- rwxrwxrwx -> 777
- rwx_r_xr_x -> 755
- rw_rw_rw_ -> 666
- rw_r__r__ -> 644
As you see above, you just add up what each letter is equal to in each group to form the numbers.
If you’re changing permissions for a CGI or Perl script, please make sure to read this knowledge base entry.
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- File permissions explained
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