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Apply permissions to a directory and its contents in Linux

Apply permissions to a directory and its contents in Linux

David Y.

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The Problem

How do I apply permissions to a directory and all its contents in Linux? For example, I would like to give all permissions (chmod 777) to the directory /var/www/myapp.

The Solution

We can do this by providing the -R/--recursive flag to our chmod command:

Click to Copy
chmod -R 777 /var/www/myapp

Note that 777 permissions will allow any user on the system to read, write and execute all files and directories within /var/www/myapp. A slightly safer configuration, which should still work for most web applications, is 755, which allows all users to read and execute the files and directories, but only the owner to write to them.

Click to Copy
chmod -R 755 /var/www/myapp

To learn more about chmod, type man chmod into your terminal.

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