Permissions #
ls shows the file and directory type and permissions of in the first 10 characters.
Looks something like: -rw-r--r-- (just a file, readable and writeable by the owner) or lrwxrwxrwx (symbolic link - see below).
The first character is the type.
| Attribute | Type |
|---|---|
| - | Regular file |
| d | Directory |
| l | Symbolic link |
| c | character special file -> device that handle data in streams (I don’t use this often) |
| b | block special file -> devices that handle data in blocks (I don’t use this often) |
The next nine characters are the permissions, and is structured <Owner> - <Group> - <World>, where each block is 3 characters. These are called file modes.
| Attribute | Files | Directories |
|---|---|---|
| r | Readable | Directory’s contents are listable |
| w | Writable | Files within are creatable, deletable, and namable |
| x | Executable | Enterable (e.g., cd <directory> |