The format of a symbolic mode is ‘[ugoa...][[+-=][rwxXstugo...]...][,...]’. Multiple symbolic operations can be given, separated by commas.
A combination of the letters ‘ugoa’ controls which users’ access to the file will be changed: the user who owns it (u), other users in the file’s group (g), other users not in the file’s group (o) , or all users (a). If none of these are given, the effect is as if ‘a’ were given, but bits that are set in the umask are not affected.
The operator ‘+’ causes the permissions selected to be added to the existing permissions of each file; ‘-’ causes them to be removed; and ‘=’ causes them to be the only permissions that the file has.
The letters ‘rwxXstugo’ select the new permissions for the affected users: read (r), write (w), execute (or access for directories) (x), execute only if the file is a directory or already has execute permission for some user (X), set user or group ID on execution (s), sticky (t), the permissions granted to the user who owns the file (u), the permissions granted to other users who are members of the file’s group (g), and the permissions granted to users that are in neither of the two preceding categories (o) .
A numeric mode is from one to four octal digits (0-7), derived by adding up the bits with values 4, 2, and 1. Any omitted digits are assumed to be leading zeros. The first digit selects the set user ID (4) and set group ID (2) and sticky (1) attributes. The second digit selects permissions for the user who owns the file: read (4) , write (2) , and execute (1) ; the third selects permissions for other users in the file’s group, with the same values; and the fourth for other users not in the file’s group, with the same values.
chmod never changes the permissions of symbolic links; the chmod system call cannot change their permissions. This is not a problem since the permissions of symbolic links are never used. However, for each symbolic link listed on the command line, chmod changes the permissions of the pointed-to file. In contrast, chmod ignores symbolic links encountered during recursive directory traversals.
Change the mode of each FILE to MODE.
Each MODE is one or more of the letters ugoa, one of the symbols +-= and one or more of the letters rwxXstugo.
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