How to Change Permissions for Directories but Not Files in Linux

• The article introduces the chmod command and its symbolic and numeric notation for setting permissions for files and directories.
• The article shows how to use the find command and the -exec option of chmod to recursively apply different permissions to directories and files in a folder.
• The article also provides some FAQs and a summary on how to check and change permissions using ls and chmod.

If you want to change the permissions of all directories in a folder but not the files, you might think that using the chmod command with the -R option would do the trick. However, this option applies the same permissions to both directories and files, which is not what you want. In this article, you will learn how to use the find command and the -exec option of chmod to selectively modify the permissions of only directories in a folder.

What is chmod?

chmod is a Linux command that allows you to change the permissions of files and directories. Permissions determine who can read, write, or execute a file or directory. There are three types of users: owner, group, and others. Each user has three types of permissions: read ®, write (w), and execute (x). You can use either symbolic or numeric notation to specify the permissions. For example, chmod u+rwx file means give the owner (u) read, write, and execute permissions for file. chmod 755 file means give the owner read, write, and execute permissions, the group read and execute permissions, and others read and execute permissions for file.

How to use find and -exec with chmod?

The find command allows you to search for files and directories that match certain criteria. You can use the -type option to specify whether you want to find files (f) or directories (d). For example, find . -type d means find all directories in the current folder (.). The -exec option allows you to execute another command on each file or directory found by find. You need to use {} as a placeholder for the file or directory name and end the command with ;. For example, find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ; means find all directories in the current folder and change their permissions to 755.

How to recursively chmod all directories but not files?

To recursively change the permissions of all directories but not files in a folder, you need to use the find command with the -type d option and the -exec option with chmod. For example, if you want to change the permissions of all directories in /home/user/folder to 755 but leave the files unchanged, you can use this command:

find /home/user/folder -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;

This command will search for all directories in /home/user/folder and apply chmod 755 to each one. The files in /home/user/folder and its subdirectories will not be affected.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Question: How do I check the permissions of a file or directory?

Answer: You can use the ls -l command to list the files and directories in a folder with their permissions. The first column shows the permissions for each file or directory. For example, drwxr-xr-x means it is a directory (d) with read, write, and execute permissions for the owner (rwx), read and execute permissions for the group (r-x), and read and execute permissions for others (r-x).

Question: How do I change the permissions of a single file or directory?

Answer: You can use the chmod command without the -R option to change the permissions of a single file or directory. For example, chmod 644 file means change the permissions of file to 644.

Question: How do I change the permissions of all files but not directories in a folder?

Answer: You can use the find command with the -type f option and the -exec option with chmod. For example, if you want to change the permissions of all files in /home/user/folder to 644 but leave the directories unchanged, you can use this command:

find /home/user/folder -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;

Summary

In this article, you learned how to use the find command and the -exec option of chmod to recursively change the permissions of all directories but not files in a folder. This is useful when you want to control who can access or modify your directories without affecting your files. You also learned how to check and change the permissions of individual files and directories using ls and chmod.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Always consult your system administrator before making any changes to your system.