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Setting the File Permissions

So, now that you have an understanding of how to decipher the numbers used for expressing file permissions - you need to be able to set them. There are two ways you can do this. Quotation Graphic

Either logging into your shell account and use the Unix CHMOD command, or using your FTP client to do it for you. Since Unix shell accounts are only usually available to those power users that pay for their hosting, FTP is the common method for doing this, as you do not have to know about the Unix commands.

Example of an FTP permissions setting interface

Here is an example of the permissions setting interface of my favourite FTP client (WS_FTP LE). You will notice that there are a total of 9 check boxes on it, each acting as a toggle for switching the read, write and execute permissions of each of the three "groups" of Unix users.

To see this menu that allows you to set the permissions, right click on the file or folder that you want to set the permissions for and select the CHMOD file option. This will bring up a menu similar to the one shown here and in most programs; it is just a case of checking the boxes that you want to set the permission for.

Notes about Permissions

You will notice that there is a note at the bottom of the example shown above. While there are permission settings on Windows servers, they are usually only set at the server level and are not comparable with the built in security features of a Unix file system - thus individual file permissions can not be set by the owner via FTP on a Windows server. As for other file systems, if they are Unix compatible then the chances are that the server will support the CHMOD command, but the only way to be sure is to try and change the permissions of a file.

Another point to remember is that you are only considered the owner of a file when you access it via a shell account or FTP (both of which require you to log in to be able to identify yourself). If you are testing a script you have uploaded and you are using a browser to do it, then you do not have the owner's privileges, rather the results of the script will depend on the other user's permissions for the script and any files that are used for it. This is why it is common to set a script's permissions to 755 (which allows other users to read and execute the file) and its data-files to 666 (which allows them to read and write to the file)

Originally Published: Fri 7th Dec, 2001
The author, Rosemarie Wise, is a self proclaimed "web enthusiast" who set up her site, Web Site Owner to share her experiences of being a site owner.

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