IntroToLinux

6. File System Permissions


🔒 Security Principles

### 🛡️ **Secure by Design** Linux is built with security in mind ### 🏠 **User Isolation** Users can only modify files in their home ### 👑 **Administrator Control** System changes require root ### 📖 **Read-Only System** System files are read-only for users

🔑 Permission Levels

Understanding rwx

📖 Read (r) ✏️ Write (w) ▶️ Execute (x)
**For Files:** - View file contents - Copy the file **For Directories:** - List directory contents - See files inside **For Files:** - Modify file contents - Delete the file - Rename the file **For Directories:** - Create files inside - Delete files inside - Rename files inside **For Files:** - Run file as program - Execute as script **For Directories:** - Enter the directory - Access files inside

🎯 Permission Examples

# File permissions visualization
-rw-r--r--  1 alice users  1024 Feb 8 10:30 report.txt
│││ │ │ │
│││ │ │ └─ Others: read only
│││ │ └─── Group: read only  
│││ └───── Owner: read + write
││└─────── Owner (alice)
│└──────── File type (- = regular file)
└───────── Permissions

drwxr-xr-x  2 bob   users  4096 Feb 8 11:00 documents/
│││ │ │ │
│││ │ │ └─ Others: read + execute (can list)
│││ │ └─── Group: read + execute (can list)
│││ └───── Owner: full access
││└─────── Owner (bob)
│└──────── Directory (d)
└───────── Permissions

🚦 Permission Summary

| Permission | Files | Directories | |————|——-|————-| | r (read) | 📄 View content | 📋 List contents | | w (write) | ✏️ Modify content | 🗂️ Create/delete files | | x (execute) | ▶️ Run as program | 🚪 Enter directory | —

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Course Home: ⌂ Introduction to Linux