Bash 5 reference · Text and System Tools

chmod (Linux command)

Change file permissions with symbolic modes (u+x, go-w) or octal numbers (755, 644, 600), optionally recursively.

Bash 5

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Syntax

chmod [-R] MODE FILE...

Symbolic and octal

touch run.sh key.pem
chmod u+x run.sh
chmod 600 key.pem
stat -c '%A %a %n' run.sh key.pem

Output

-rwxrw-r-- 764 run.sh
-rw------- 600 key.pem

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

Remove write access recursively

mkdir -p site/css; touch site/index.html site/css/a.css
chmod -R go-w site
find site -perm -o+w | wc -l

Output

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

find · Find files and directories by name, type, size, age or permissions, and act on them with -exec, -delete or xargs.
Bash File Permissions · tutorial