Get to know Linux: File permissions

Written By
JW
Jack Wallen
Jan 22, 2010

“Have you ever attempted to do something with a file on a Linux
machine and been given the error “permission denied”?
For some people this isn’t a problem, either su to the root
user or use the sudo command to help you along. For some users,
however, this can be very frustrating. Why? When you don’t
understand file permissions, using and (especially) administering a
Linux system can be a real pain. Even though you can read an
extended listing of a file and see drwxr–r–, if you
don’t know what that means (or how to manipulate it) what
good is that extended listing? And what good is that file if you
can’t access it (when you need to or should be able to)?

“In this article I will introduce you to Linux file permissions
and how to manipulate them. I will show you how to manipulate
permissions from both the command line as well as the GNOME gui
Nautilus.”


Complete Story

JW

Jack Wallen

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.