.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% .\" .\" @(#)chmod.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 06/29/93 .\" .Dd .Dt CHMOD 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm chmod .Nd change file modes .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm chmod .Op Fl HRh .Ar mode .Ar file ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm chmod utility modifies the file mode bits of the listed files as specified by the .Ar mode operand. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl H When encountering a symbolic link on the command line, follow it. All other symbolic links encountered in the traversal are not followed. .It Fl R Traverse a file hierarchy. For each file that is of type directory, .Nm chmod changes the mode of all files in the file hierarchy below it followed by the mode of the directory itself. .It Fl h When encountering a symbolic link anywhere in the traversal, follow it. .El .Pp The mode of a symbolic link is immutable, so unless the .Fl h or .Fl H flag is set, .Nm chmod on a symbolic link is a no-op. .Pp Only the owner of a file or the super-user is permitted to change the mode of a file. .Pp The .Nm chmod utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. .Sh MODES Modes may be absolute or symbolic. An absolute mode is an octal number constructed by .Ar or-ing the following values: .Pp .Bl -tag -width 6n -compact -offset indent .It Li 4000 set-user-ID-on-execution .It Li 2000 set-group-ID-on-execution .It Li 1000 sticky bit, see chmod(2) .It Li 0400 read by owner .It Li 0200 write by owner .It Li 0100 execute (or search for directories) by owner .It Li 0070 read, write, execute/search by group .It Li 0007 read, write, execute/search by others .El .Pp The read, write, and execute/search values for group and others are encoded as described for owner. .Pp The symbolic mode is described by the following grammar: .Bd -literal -offset indent mode ::= clause [, clause ...] clause ::= [who ...] [action ...] last_action action ::= op [perm ...] last_action ::= op [perm ...] who ::= a | u | g | o op ::= + | \- | = perm ::= r | s | t | w | x | X .Ed .Pp The .Ar who symbols ``u'', ``g'', and ``o'' specify the user, group, and other parts of the mode bits, respectively. The .Ar who symbol ``a'' is equivalent to ``ugo''. .Pp .ne 1i The .Ar perm symbols represent the portions of the mode bits as follows: .Pp .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent .It r The read bits. .It s The set-user-ID-on-execution and set-group-ID-on-execution bits. .It t The sticky bit. .It w The write bits. .It x The execute/search bits. .It X The execute/search bits if the file is a directory or any of the execute/search bits are set in the original (unmodified) mode. Operations with the .Ar perm symbol ``X'' are only meaningful in conjunction with the .Ar op symbol ``+'', and are ignored in all other cases. .El .Pp The .Ar op symbols represent the operation performed, as follows: .Bl -tag -width 4n .It + If no value is supplied for .Ar perm , the ``+'' operation has no effect. If no value is supplied for .Ar who , each permission bit specified in .Ar perm , for which the corresponding bit in the file mode creation mask is clear, is set. Otherwise, the mode bits represented by the specified .Ar who and .Ar perm values are set. .It \&\- If no value is supplied for .Ar perm , the ``\-'' operation has no effect. If no value is supplied for .Ar who , the mode bits represented by .Ar perm are cleared for the owner, group and other permissions. Otherwise, the mode bits represented by the specified .Ar who and .Ar perm values are cleared. .It = The mode bits specified by the .Ar who value are cleared, or, if no who value is specified, the owner, group and other mode bits are cleared. Then, if no value is supplied for .Ar who , each permission bit specified in .Ar perm , for which the corresponding bit in the file mode creation mask is clear, is set. Otherwise, the mode bits represented by the specified .Ar who and .Ar perm values are set. .El .Pp Each .Ar clause specifies one or more operations to be performed on the mode bits, and each operation is applied to the mode bits in the order specified. .Pp Operations upon the other permissions only (specified by the symbol ``o'' by itself), in combination with the .Ar perm symbols ``s'' or ``t'', are ignored. .Sh EXAMPLES .Bl -tag -width "u=rwx,go=u-w" -compact .It Li 644 make a file readable by anyone and writable by the owner only. .Pp .It Li go-w deny write permission to group and others. .Pp .It Li =rw,+X set the read and write permissions to the usual defaults, but retain any execute permissions that are currently set. .Pp .It Li +X make a directory or file searchable/executable by everyone if it is already searchable/executable by anyone. .Pp .It Li 755 .It Li u=rwx,go=rx .It Li u=rwx,go=u-w make a file readable/executable by everyone and writeable by the owner only. .Pp .It Li go= clear all mode bits for group and others. .Pp .It Li g=u-w set the group bits equal to the user bits, but clear the group write bit. .El .Sh BUGS There's no .Ar perm option for the naughty bits. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr install 1 , .Xr chmod 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr umask 2 , .Xr fts 3 , .Xr setmode 3 , .Xr symlink 7 , .Xr chown 8 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm chmod utility is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible with the exception of the .Ar perm symbols .Dq t and .Dq X which are not included in that standard.