[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by icecube0045

how do I "CHMOD" my files?

Files and directories on webservers may have three types of permissions:

1) read (`r')
2) write (`w')
3) execute (`x')

Each permission may be `on' or `off' for each of three categories of users:

1) the first digit refers to the file or directory owner
2) the second digit refers to other people in the same group as the owner
3) the third digit refers to all others (the world)

'chmod' or "change mode" is the UNIX way of changing file permissions. Basically CHMOD refers to setting the access privileges for a file, and you use an FTP client. Highlight the file that you want to change permissions for, and right click and select "Properties" or "Permissions" or "CHMOD" or "File Attributes" (depending on which FTP client you are using). Within each set of permissions (you, group, world) there are three permissions you can set: Read - Write - Execute. Therefore when you set the permissions on a file you must take into account 'who' needs access. The chmod command allows you to change the file permissions to allow only specific people to view your files and directories.

This is what CHMOD 755 looks like:



Most Perl Scripts should be set to 755. Most HTML files should be set to 644. And most data files that must be written to by a web server should be 666. The standard directory permission should be 755. Directories that must be written to by a web server should be 777. Your home directory should be 700. If you are operating a ~username type server, the public_html directory should be 777. (You may also need to open up the home directory to 755.) (It's typically a bad idea to chmod 777 any file, as it allows the world to replace the program with whatever they'd like).

Setting execute for a directory allows that directory to be read. That is, you can see what's in it. That is, if a user does not have execute permissions for a directory, when they attempt to view the contents of that directory it will return an error and not list the files in that directory.

side note: Any file name that starts with a '.' is invisible to the webserver when a directory list is generated (This is a quick and easy way to hide a file).

here is a quick CHMOD reference:

Number | Permissions
=================================================
0 | None - cannot read or write or execute
1 | Can execute, but cannot read or write
2 | Write-only, cannot read or execute (??)
3 | Writeable/executable
4 | Read-only, cannot write to or execute
5 | Read-only executable, cannot write to
6 | Readable Writeable file, but not executable (ie: text file)
7 | Readable Writeable Executable file - most programs are this