Linux: Set permission only to directories

linux bash directory chmod
radicaled picture radicaled · Jun 13, 2013 · Viewed 29k times · Source

I have to change the permissions of the htdocs directory in apache to a certain group and with certain read/write/execute.

The directories need to have 775 permissions and the files need to have 664.

If I do a recursive 664 to the htdocs, then all files and directories will change to 664.

I don't want to change the directories manually.

Is there any way to change only files or directories?

Answer

Gordon Davisson picture Gordon Davisson · Jun 13, 2013

chmod can actually do this itself; the X symbolic permission means "execute, if it makes sense" which generally means on directories but not files. So, you can use:

chmod -R u=rwX,go=rX /path/to/htdocs

The only potential problem is that if any of the plain files already have execute set, chmod assumes it's intentional and keeps it.

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