How to use Chmod Recursive to Change File Permissions on macOS and Linux

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Today, in this article, we will show you how to use Chmod Recursive to change file permissions on macOS and Linux. If you manage Linux servers or use Linux as your primary operating system, you may encounter situations where you try to create or update a file and receive a “Permission Denied” error. Setting the appropriate file rights or ownership often resolves issues caused by insufficient permissions.

Linux is a multi-user operating system and file permissions, characteristics and ownership are used to regulate access to files. By doing this, it ensures that only processes and users with permission can access files and directories. To limit access to apps, files, and folders, your Mac employs permissions.

By using this security measure, you can help prevent unauthorized access to your data. Change permissions on your documents to protect the privacy and integrity of your data, whether you use your Mac in public spaces or share it with others. We have mentioned below the steps to use Chmod Recursive to change file permissions on macOS and Linux.

Steps to Use Chmod Recursive to Change File Permissions on macOS and Linux

prerequisites

A command line/terminal window (Ctrl????????Alt????????T or Ctrl????????Alt+F2????????

A user account with sudo privileges (optional)

A Linux system

Check file permission

If you need to check the file permissions in the working directory, use the command:

ls -l

For example, the Example directory contains three files (test1.txt????test2.txtand test3.txt) with the same permissions (-rw-rw-r–????????

The file permissions listed above tell us the following:

O owner has read and write privileges

O owner group has read and write privileges

other users have read privileges

Change permission recursively

It is common to use the basic chmod command to change the permission of a single file. However, it may be necessary to modify the permission recursively for all files in a directory.

In such cases, the chmod recursive option (-R or -recursive) sets permission for a directory (and the files it contains).

O syntax to change file permission recursively is:

chmod -R [permission] [directory]

Therefore, for set permission 755 for all files in the Example directory, you would type:

sudo chmod -R 755 Example

The command gives read, write, and execute privileges to the owner (7) and read and execute access to everyone else (55).

Change permission with find command

To assign separate permissions to directories and files, you can use the find command????????

The basic syntax includes using find command to locate files/directories and then passing to chmod to set the permission:

sudo find [directory] -model [d/f] -exec chmod [privilege] ????????

To replace [directory] with the path of the directory containing the files and subdirectories you want to configure.

Specify whether you are looking for a -type d directory or a -type f file.

set the file [privilege] with the chmod command using numerical or symbolic mode.

Avoid assigning execute privileges to files. A common setup would include running the following commands:

sudo find Example -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;

sudo find Example -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;

Change permission of specific files recursively

The combination of the find and chmod command can also be used to change the permission of files of a specific type.

O command syntax to change the permission of a specific file type in a directory is:

to think [directory] -Name “*.[filename_extension]” -exec chmod [privilege] ????????

For example, to do all .sh files in the current directory’s executable, you would use:

to think . -name “*.sh” -exec chmod +x {} ;

Final Words

That’s it with our article on how to use Chmod Recursive to change file permissions on macOS and Linux. The chmod command must be used to manage file permissions on Linux or macOS. However, you can use the chmod command to modify all files found in a directory and its subdirectories using the recursive chmod option.