A list of terminal commands to view and modify permissions on files.

Terminal: Permissions & How to Change Them

Say you were to create a text file via terminal by using the command "touch aFile.txt"
*once you have created it make a detailed list using "ls -l"
* -l in the command gives more information about the file

Once you press enter you will see a line with the following code.
example:
-rw-r--r--  1 user  staff  0 Apr  15  3:44 aFile.text

user = this part shows user

staff = shows group that has ownership of the file

the first three commands on the left we will break

-rw- = this refers to the user and the permissions it has which is read and write, hence the "rw" but cant execute it

first "r--"
r-- = this refers to permissions anyone in the group has (group as in other user accounts on your OS)(read but cant write)

second "r--"
r-- = refers to anyone else which could be someone on another machine or someone on another web server (can't read, write, or execute file)

Changing permissions
- we can change these permissions using "chmod"

chmod g+w afile.txt =  this will allow the read and write permissions for the group as well and the user
example of final output if done correctly: -rw-rw-r--

chmod o+w afile.txt = this gives you access to read and write across all user, group, and others
example of final output if done correctly: -rw-rw-rw-

chmod a+x afile.txt = this command allows you to give execute permissions to everyone

chmod go-x afile.txt = the - sign allows you to remove permissions to the groups you specify(in my case i chose to remove groups and others for afile.txt)
example of final output if done correctly: -rwxrw-rw-

chmod g+x-w afile.txt = this allows you execute permissions for the text file specified but not write
example of final output if done correctly: -rwxr-xrw-