FreeBSD6 Unleashed

File and Directory Permissions

Refer to the files in Listing 13.1. It’s now time to examine the permissions strings for these files and directories more carefully. The first thing you should notice is that for directories, the first bit in the string is a d. This is simply a flag and doesn’t really indicate permissions that can be controlled; this flag is, however, a useful means of distinguishing between files and directories.

The rest of the bits in the string are fairly straightforward: three groups of three, showing respectively the read, write, and execute permissions for the user owner, the group owner, and all other users. For instance, contents.html (with the permissions string -rw-rw-r--) is readable and writable by both the user and ...