CHMOD(1)

NAME
chmod - change the access permissions of files

SYNOPSIS
chmod [-Rcfv] [--recursive] [--changes] [--silent] [--quiet] [--verbose] [--help] [--version] mode file...

DESCRIPTION
This documentation is no longer being maintained and may be inaccurate or incomplete. The Texinfo documentation is now the authoritative source.

This manual page documents the GNU version of chmod. chmod changes the permissions of each given file according to mode, which can be either a symbolic representation of changes to make, or an octal number representing the bit pattern for the new permissions.

The format of a symbolic mode is `[ugoa...][[+-=][rwxXstugo...]...][,...]'. Multiple symbolic operations can be given, separated by commas.

A combination of the letters `ugoa' controls which users' access to the file will be changed: the user who owns it (u), other users in the file's group (g), other users not in the file's group (o), or all users (a). If none of these are given, the effect is as if `a' were given, but bits that are set in the umask are not affected.

The operator `+' causes the permissions selected to be added to the existing permissions of each file; `-' causes them to be removed; and `=' causes them to be the only permissions that the file has.

The letters `rwxXstugo' select the new permissions for the affected users: read (r), write (w), execute (or access for directories) (x), execute only if the file is a directory or already has execute permission for some user (X), set user or group ID on execution (s), save program text on swap device (t), the permissions that the user who owns the file currently has for it (u), the permissions that other users in the file's group have for it (g), and the permissions that other users not in the file's group have for it (o).

A numeric mode is from one to four octal digits (0-7), derived by adding up the bits with values 4, 2, and 1. Any omitted digits are assumed to be leading zeros. The first digit selects the set user ID (4) and set group ID (2) and save text image (1) attributes. The second digit selects permissions for the user who owns the file: read (4), write (2), and execute (1); the third selects permissions for other users in the file's group, with the same values; and the fourth for other users not in the file's group, with the same values.

chmod never changes the permissions of symbolic links; the chmod system call cannot change their permissions. This is not a problem since the permissions of symbolic links are never used. However, for each symbolic link listed on the command line, chmod changes the permissions of the pointed-to file. In contrast, chmod ignores symbolic links encountered during recursive directory traversals.

  OPTIONS

-c, --changes
    Verbosely describe only files whose permissions actually change.

-f, --silent, --quiet
    Do not print error messages about files whose permissions cannot be changed.

-v, --verbose
    Verbosely describe changed permissions.

-R, --recursive
    Recursively change permissions of directories and their contents.

--help
    Print a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

--version
    Print version information on standard output then exit successfully.