Permissions

What it's for

Work out Unix file permissions in whichever form you have: ticked boxes, an octal number such as 755, or the rwxr-xr-x form that ls -l shows. You get the matching chmod commands to copy.

For example, when a script won’t run or a web server can’t read a file, check what the permissions mean and get the right chmod command to fix them.

How to use it

Tick the read, write and execute boxes for the owner, group and others, or type an octal mode or a symbolic one. Every form updates to match. The special bits, setuid, setgid and sticky, are included too. Below, copy the command in octal form (chmod 755 file) or symbolic form (chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx file), or the full ls -l string.

Example

Type this in Octal:

755

The symbolic form shows rwxr-xr-x, and the commands are chmod 755 file and chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx file. The owner can read, write and run the file, and everyone else can read and run it.

Good to know

Replace file in the commands with your file’s name. Permissions on macOS can also be affected by ACLs and other security features, which this tool doesn’t cover.