File Permissions (System Administration Guide, Volume 2)

System Administration Guide, Volume 2

File Permissions

The table below lists and describes the permissions you can give to each user class for a file.

Table 17-1 File Permissions


Symbol	Permission	Means Designated Users ...
`r`	Read	Can open and read the contents of a file
`w`	Write	Can write to the file (modify its contents), add to it, or delete it
`x`	Execute	Can execute the file (if it is a program or shell script), or run it with one of the exec(1) system calls
`-`	Denied	Cannot read, write, or execute the file

These file permissions apply to special files such as devices, sockets, and named pipes (FIFOs), as they do to regular files.

For a symbolic link, the permissions that apply are those of the file the link points to.