[ubuntu-uk] Help needed with ssh

[John Matthews]

Alan Lord (News) wrote:
> On 17/07/09 06:45, John Matthews wrote:
>   
>> Ok, this is some good news, I have a question to ask, I need to change
>> the permissions of a file in one of my folders, on my site, it has to be
>> read only, as it is its 777.
>>
>> I have gotten into the folder and have the list of files and their
>> permissions, and I can see the file I need to change, but I am not sure
>> of the command.
>>
>> I know you have to chmod to something but I cannot work it out.
>>
>> Can somebody help please?
>>     
>
> chmod is the right command but, depending on who *owns* the file you 
> might not have permissions to do so straight away.
>
> man chmod will help you. There are several ways to achieve the same thing.
>
> essentially the command is:
>
> chmod [OPTION]... MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
>
> or
>
> chmod [OPTION]... OCTAL-MODE FILE...
>
> Personally I prefer the octal method.
>
> Your file has three sets of permissions
>
> -rw-r--r-- 1 alord alord 49 2009-05-13 19:43 temp
>
> (BTW, this information is well documented in several of the links we 
> supplied previously).
>
> Ignoring the very first (from the left) "-" you should see three groups 
> of "---" Which in my case show
>
> rw- (The File Owner: The first alord you see)
> r-- (The Group Owner: The 2nd alord)
> r-- (Anyone/Everyone: Also referred to as World)
>
> So, who do you want to have read only access? Everyone but you? Everyone 
> but you and the group? Or Everyone?
>
> chmod 444 filename
>
> Will set all three sets of permissions to Read only.
>
> chmod 666 filename
>
> Will set all three sets of perms to Read/Write.
>
> chmod 555 filename
>
> Will set all three perms to Read/Execute
>
> You add up three numbers to get the right one:
>
> 1: Execute,
> 2: Write,
> 4: Read.
>
> If you want the file to be read only for everyone else, but *you* (The 
> file's owner) needs read/write then do:
>
> chmod 644 filename
>
> You do not say what or who owns the file. If it on your webserver, it 
> might be owned by the web-server perhaps? Sometimes called www-data, 
> apache, nobody or httpd. The name is [almost] arbitrary but if it isn't 
> the same as your username you do not own it.
>
> If you are not the owner you might not be able to change it without 
> becoming root or assuming root privileges by using sudo (if available on 
> your system).
>
> This page (of the link I have referred you to on several occasions) will 
> explain all this far better than I can in a text-mode email.
>
> http://linuxcommand.org/lts0070.php
>
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
>   
Hi, thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it. I am sorry 
that I have to ask, I am finding it hard to follow some of those 
instructions,

example in point:-

the $pwd commands shows the directory, then it says if you want to 
change the directory, it tells you to use $cd /usr/then directory you 
want. I followed those instructions, but nothing was happened, and it 
wasnt until I thought to go into my Places and do it that way, that I 
discovered that I have to on my machine, add cd /home/myname/then 
directory, then it would work.


I got down to the permissions page, and it just looked like a lot of 
stuff, that made no sense at all.

I am sorry that I have had to ask, I will try from now on to not bother 
you.

Thank you again,

John.