The permissions themselves are expressed using letters, as follows: Of these remaining nine positions, the first three positions are for user, the next three are for group, and the last three are for other. The nine remaining positions indicate permissions for each of the three access classes. In a web hosting context, this is typically a d for directory or a dash otherwise. The first position indicates the file type. Permissions may be expressed by a string of ten characters, like the following example, which the is permissions readout for a typical public_html directory: drwx-r-x You will typically see permissions expressed in one of two ways: either using letters that stand for the terms read, write, and execute, or using a numeric value that indicates the combination of permissions for a file across each access class. Setting permissions from the command line also requires an understanding of how permissions are expressed.

You'll need to understand how permissions are expressed in order to understand what you are seeing when you view the permissions for a file. This means that anyone on the internet can view the file, but they can't run it, edit it, or delete it. However, you do not give it permission to write or execute. So, you would give the other class permission to read the file. Now let's say you want to give the entire internet the ability to view a file, which you might do if the file was a webpage file. It can run it, read it, edit it, or even delete it. This means that the creator of the file can do anything to that file. So, for example, you could give the user read, write, and execute permissions.

Someone with execute permission may run an executable file or access the contents of a directory.Īccess Classes + Permission Type Examples.

For directories, this means that someone with write permission may create or delete files within the directory.

Someone with write permission may modify the contents of a file, including adding, changing, or deleting file contents.

Someone with read permission may read the contents of a file, or list the contents of a directory.

Permission Typesįiles and directories can have three types of permissions: read, write, and execute:

See the different permission types in the next section. You can set certain permissions for each of these access types.

Everyone else, including the web server, belongs to the other class.

People in the same group as the owner of the file comprise the group.

The owner of the file is called the user.

Access Classesįile permissions are set on a file-by-file basis, and are set for each of three different access classes: user, group, and other: Both operating systems use UNIX file permissions to determine who can do what to each file. Your website's files are hosted on Pair Networks servers running either the FreeBSD or Ubuntu Linux operating systems.

Understanding permissions ubuntu