SAMS Teach Yourself Red Hat® Fedora™ 4 Linux® All in One

Understanding Advanced Permissions

In Chapter 7, “Understanding File Properties,” you learned the basics of file ownership and permissions in Linux. You also learned to use the chmod command at the command line to change file permissions using the symbols (letters) r, w, and x for read, write, and execute.

The basic set of read, write, and execute permissions and the basic file ownership behavior work well for most situations. However, Linux does provide a way for administrators to change the ownerships of existing files, as well as an additional set of permissions properties for more unique situations, which can provide finer-grained control over the ways in which files and directories behave.

Changing File Ownership

The chown command can be ...