Linux File Permissions Illustrated

Ownership

Every file or directory is assigned 3 types of owner:

• Owner: the owner is the user who created the file or directory.

• Group: a group can have multiple users. All users in the group have the same permissions to access the file or directory.

• Other: other means those users who are not owners or members of the group.

Permission

There are only three types of permissions for a file or directory.

• Read (r): the read permission allows the user to read a file.

• Write (w): the write permission allows the user to change the content of the file.

• Execute (x): the execute permission allows a file to be executed.