I want to change the attrib mode for 450 files to 0755 in sub directory by one command , search the files extention and change his mode , for ex.

  • Home
    -- Audio
    --- File1.rm
    --- File1.rm
    • Video
      --- File1.rm
      --- File1.rm

any idea ?

    If the files are all in a sub directory and the current directory you can do this

    chmod 755 -R *
    

    -R means recursively
    * is a wild card to find all files and chmod.

      what about sub directories ?

      --1
      ---2
      ---3
      -----1
      -----2
      ---4
      ---5

      I want to change all *.rm files on my server

        what planetsim said will do the subfolders, thats what is meant by recursively.

          19 days later

          how to include the files in sub folders ??

            That is all you have to do, the -R is what includes the subfolders. To exclusively change the permissions of .rm files then do as follows

            chmod 755 -R *.rm
            

              15:10[~]# chmod 755 -R *.rm
              chmod: No match.

              the correct command

              15:14[/home/boxway/htdocs]# chmod -R 755 *.rm
              15:14[/home/boxway/htdocs]#

              it seem to be done but the files under sub directory does't changed 🙁

                Enter

                man chmod
                

                and then have a read, it's probably just a slightly different/old version of chmod. If there is no recursive option then you may have to write yourself a little script to do it for you.

                  the result


                  CHMOD(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual CHMOD(1)

                  NNAAMMEE
                  cchhmmoodd -- change file modes

                  SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
                  cchhmmoodd [-ffhhvv] [-RR [-HH | -LL | -PP]] m_o_d_e f_i_l_e .._.

                  DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
                  The cchhmmoodd utility modifies the file mode bits of the listed files as
                  specified by the _m_o_d_e operand.

                   The options are as follows:
                  
                   -ff      Do not display a diagnostic message if cchhmmoodd could not modify the
                       mode for _f_i_l_e, nor modify the exit status to reflect such fail-
                       ures.
                  
                   -HH      If the -RR option is specified, symbolic links on the command line
                       are followed.  (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal
                       are not followed by default.)
                  
                   -hh      If the file is a symbolic link, change the mode of the link
                       itself rather than the file that the link points to.
                  
                   -LL      If the -RR option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
                  
                   -PP      If the -RR option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
                       This is the default.
                  
                   -RR      Change the modes of the file hierarchies rooted in the files
                       instead of just the files themselves.
                  
                   -vv      Cause cchhmmoodd to be verbose, showing filenames as the mode is modi-
                       fied.
                  
                   The -HH, -LL and -PP options are ignored unless the -RR option is specified.
                   In addition, these options override each other and the command's actions
                   are determined by the last one specified.
                  
                   Only the owner of a file or the super-user is permitted to change the
                   mode of a file.

                  DDIIAAGGNNOOSSTTIICCSS
                  The cchhmmoodd utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

                  MMOODDEESS
                  Modes may be absolute or symbolic. An absolute mode is an octal number
                  constructed from the sum of one or more of the following values:

                     4000    (the setuid bit).  Executable files with this bit set will
                  	   run with effective uid set to the uid of the file owner.
                  	   Directories with this bit set will force all files and sub-
                  	   directories created in them to be owned by the directory
                  	   owner and not by the uid of the creating process, if the
                  	   underlying file system supports this feature: see chmod(2)
                  	   and the ssuuiiddddiirr option to mount(8).
                     2000    (the setgid bit).  Executable files with this bit set will
                  	   run with effective gid set to the gid of the file owner.
                     1000    (the sticky bit).  See chmod(2) and sticky(8).
                     0400    Allow read by owner.
                     0200    Allow write by owner.
                     0100    For files, allow execution by owner.  For directories,
                  	   allow the owner to search in the directory.
                     0040    Allow read by group members.
                     0020    Allow write by group members.
                     0010    For files, allow execution by group members.  For directo-
                  	   ries, allow group members to search in the directory.
                     0004    Allow read by others.
                     0002    Allow write by others.
                     0001    For files, allow execution by others.  For directories
                  	   allow others to search in the directory.
                  
                   For example, the absolute mode that permits read, write and execute by
                   the owner, read and execute by group members, read and execute by others,
                   and no set-uid or set-gid behaviour is 755 (400+200+100+040+010+004+001).
                  
                   The symbolic mode is described by the following grammar:
                  
                     mode 	::= clause [, clause ...]
                     clause	::= [who ...] [action ...] action
                     action	::= op [perm ...]
                     who		::= a | u | g | o
                     op		::= + | - | =
                     perm 	::= r | s | t | w | x | X | u | g | o
                  
                   The _w_h_o symbols ``u'', ``g'', and ``o'' specify the user, group, and
                   other parts of the mode bits, respectively.  The _w_h_o symbol ``a'' is
                   equivalent to ``ugo''.
                  
                   The _p_e_r_m symbols represent the portions of the mode bits as follows:
                  
                     r	   The read bits.
                     s	   The set-user-ID-on-execution and set-group-ID-on-execution
                  	   bits.
                     t	   The sticky bit.
                     w	   The write bits.
                     x	   The execute/search bits.
                     X	   The execute/search bits if the file is a directory or any
                  	   of the execute/search bits are set in the original (unmodi-
                  	   fied) mode.	Operations with the _p_e_r_m symbol ``X'' are only
                  	   meaningful in conjunction with the _o_p symbol ``+'', and are
                  	   ignored in all other cases.
                     u	   The user permission bits in the original mode of the file.
                     g	   The group permission bits in the original mode of the file.
                     o	   The other permission bits in the original mode of the file.
                  
                   The _o_p symbols represent the operation performed, as follows:
                  
                   +	   If no value is supplied for _p_e_r_m, the ``+'' operation has no
                     effect.  If no value is supplied for _w_h_o, each permission bit spec-
                     ified in _p_e_r_m, for which the corresponding bit in the file mode
                     creation mask is clear, is set.  Otherwise, the mode bits repre-
                     sented by the specified _w_h_o and _p_e_r_m values are set.
                  
                   -	   If no value is supplied for _p_e_r_m, the ``-'' operation has no
                     effect.  If no value is supplied for _w_h_o, each permission bit spec-
                     ified in _p_e_r_m, for which the corresponding bit in the file mode
                     creation mask is clear, is cleared.	Otherwise, the mode bits rep-
                     resented by the specified _w_h_o and _p_e_r_m values are cleared.
                  
                   =	   The mode bits specified by the _w_h_o 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 _w_h_o, each permission
                     bit specified in _p_e_r_m, for which the corresponding bit in the file
                     mode creation mask is clear, is set.  Otherwise, the mode bits rep-
                     resented by the specified _w_h_o and _p_e_r_m values are set.
                  
                   Each _c_l_a_u_s_e specifies one or more operations to be performed on the mode
                   bits, and each operation is applied to the mode bits in the order speci-
                   fied.
                  
                   Operations upon the other permissions only (specified by the symbol ``o''
                   by itself), in combination with the _p_e_r_m symbols ``s'' or ``t'', are
                   ignored.

                  EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS
                  644 make a file readable by anyone and writable by the owner
                  only.

                   go-w	   deny write permission to group and others.
                  
                   =rw,+X	   set the read and write permissions to the usual defaults,
                  	   but retain any execute permissions that are currently set.
                  
                   +X 	   make a directory or file searchable/executable by everyone
                  	   if it is already searchable/executable by anyone.
                  
                   755
                   u=rwx,go=rx
                   u=rwx,go=u-w  make a file readable/executable by everyone and writable by
                  	   the owner only.
                  
                   go=	   clear all mode bits for group and others.
                  
                   g=u-w	   set the group bits equal to the user bits, but clear the
                  	   group write bit.

                  BBUUGGSS
                  There's no _p_e_r_m option for the naughty bits.

                  CCOOMMPPAATTIIBBIILLIITTYY
                  The -vv option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.

                  SSEEEE AALLSSOO
                  chflags(1), install(1), chmod(2), stat(2), umask(2), fts(3), setmode(3),
                  symlink(7), chown(8), mount(8), sticky(8)

                  SSTTAANNDDAARRDDSS
                  The cchhmmoodd utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (POSIX.2'') compat-
                  ible with the exception of the _p_e_r_m symbol
                  t'' which is not included in
                  that standard.

                  HHIISSTTOORRYY
                  A cchhmmoodd command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

                  FreeBSD 4.10 March 31, 1994 FreeBSD 4.10

                    chmod -R 755 *.rm

                    This will only change the permissions of the files in the current directory with the extension rm. This is because no directories will match "*.rm", or if they do I imagine it'd be by chance only.

                    chmod -R 755 *

                    This will change the permissions of all files in the current directory and all subdirectories. All files and directories, not just those with the extension rm.

                    find . -name "*.rm" -and -type f | xargs chmod -R 755

                    This is what I would use. It will change the permissions of all files with the extension rm in the current directory and all subdirectories.

                      Hey ther guys I am also having a problem as I am new to running a linux webserver and I wish to use cron to chmod all the files in a specific directory. This was before I realised that I had never used CHMOD or CRON from a command line before the directory i want to chmod is /home/biglew5k/public_html and I need it to recursively chmod all the files and directories in this folder.

                      Heres where it gets really tricky I need to chmod
                      all directories to 777
                      all textfiles to 666
                      and all php files to 777
                      any other files 666

                      😃

                        I think its customary to start a new thread. Not that it matters to me, but just saying...

                        Anyway, here are your commands. Should probably put them in a script. The first will change all files in that directory and sub-directories to 666. The second changes that directories and all sub-directories, as well as all files ending in .php, to 777.

                        find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type f | xargs chmod 666
                        find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type d -or -name "*.php" | xargs chmod 777
                        

                        You didn't give any specifics about the cron job, such as when/how often it should run. Quick example though. Assume you put the above commands in a file called /home/biglew5k/bin/fixperms.sh, made it executable, and you wanted to run this every hour. You could put this command in your crontab file, say at /home/biglew5k/.crontab

                        0 * * * * /home/biglew5k/bin/fixperms.sh

                        Then from the command prompt you would run

                        crontab /home/biglew5k/.crontab

                        You could also skip the crontab file, and just edit the crontab for your user directly using crontab -e. Or if you want this to run as root you'd have the option to put the script (or a symlink to the script) in one of the cron directories in /etc, such as /etc/cron.hourly/

                          Thanx so much you are a gentleman and a scholar just wondering though where do you get this kind of information from if it's not too much trouble I have some cron documentation and have searched the web just wondering if you know any better links.:p

                            Thanks for the compliment. I really wish I had a good site to refer you to. When I started talking about crontab I stopped and did a search to give you further reading, but gave up after trying a few. Figured my memory is more detailed then what I saw.

                            Believe me you, if someone responds with a good site I'll bookmark it myself. If nothing else just so I can refer other people to it.

                              Bearing in mind that I wanted to ask why any files with a space in the name seem to fail using this command😉

                                Because spaces in file names are evil. :evilgrin:

                                The first command can be changed to

                                find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 666

                                And that will work with spaces in the file names. Spaces in directories aren't quite so easy, since -print0, -exec, and pretty much every other action you can give to find will omit directories and only work on files. This seems to work for the second one, but I don't believe its portable. (Linux / Debian testing here)

                                find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type d -or -name "*.php" | xargs -iX chmod 777 X

                                  How about this one.

                                  chmod -R 777 /home/biglew5k/public_html
                                  find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type f -and -not -iname "*.php" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                  

                                  The first changes all directories and all files to 777, the second goes back and changes all files except those with an extension of php to 666.

                                    5 days later

                                    I'm currently using this
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name ".php" -exec chmod 777 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "
                                    .inc" -exec chmod 777 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name ".mnu" -exec chmod 777 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "
                                    .htm" -exec chmod 777 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name ".gif" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "
                                    .jpg" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name ".jpeg" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "
                                    .zip" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name ".rar" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "
                                    .png" -exec chmod 666 {} \;
                                    find /home/biglew5k/public_html -name "*.txt" -exec chmod 666 {} \;

                                      find /home/biglew5k/public_html -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;

                                      See, that one didn't work for me at all. Didn't match any directories. Maybe its a version issue.

                                      But anyway, as long as it works for you.

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