chmod - mode of 'file.name' retained as 0755

[aidanewen]

OK, this is making me crazy. I can't seem to chmod a directory.

user@host:/usr/share$ sudo chmod -Rv o+r openbravo-erp
mode of 'openbravo-erp' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)
user@host:/usr/share$

I've tried ls -L to see if it's a symbolic link but it doesn't seem to be. I've no idea why I can't change the permissions.

Can anyone help?

[mike2357]

It looks like it's working, but chmod is telling you the permissions you want are already set, so there's no need to change.

"o+r" means give others read permission, and it appears they already have it.

What are you trying to do? Maybe there's a piece I'm not seeing.

[aidanewen]

Sorry I made a typo above, the permissions on the directory are drwxr-xr-x.

(I've now corrected my original post...)

[bodhi.zazen]

Sorry I made a typo above, the permissions on the directory are drwxr-xr-x.

(I've now corrected my original post...)

What do you want the permissions to be ?

Since others already have r access, +r will do nothing.

You need to either

chmod 750 (use numbers) or remove permissions you do not want

chmod o-x

BUT permissions on directories are not the same as permissions on files

http://www.zzee.com/solutions/linux-permissions.shtml

[aidanewen]

I want others to have read permission:

drwxr-xr-xr rather than drwxr-xr-x

[aidanewen]

I'm trying to apply the change to all files and sub directories recursively (using the -R option).

[The Cog]

I want others to have read permission:

drwxr-xr-xr rather than drwxr-xr-x

drwxr-xr-x does give everyone read permissions. It's a directory and the user permissions are:
rwx : full permissions to owner
r-x : read and execute (enter the directory) to the group
r-x : read and execute (enter the directory) to the world

There cannot be another "r" after drwxr-xr-x because the description is already complete.

[aidanewen]

OK, I get it. Only files can have that r - not directories (where an x means they can be opened right?).

What about my recursive change of permissions. I want all the files in the directory readable by anyone, but I'm getting the following:

  user@host:/usr/share$ sudo chmod -Rv o+r openbravo-erp/


.....


  mode of `openbravo-erp/src/src/index.html' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)
  mode of `openbravo-erp/src/src/build.xml' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)
  mode of `openbravo-erp/src/src/ehcache.xml' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)
  mode of `openbravo-erp/src/src/buildAD.xml' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)
  user@host:/usr/share$

It doesn't look like I've managed to change the permissions on my files either.

[The Cog]

But others already have read permissions. Look:

mode of `openbravo-erp/src/src/index.html' retained as 0755 (rwxr-xr-x)

Other users permissions are already r-x (read, not write, execute). That's why the existing mode was retained. I don't think you really want executable XML files, but that's another issue.

[aidanewen]

OK, I think I'm starting to understand this properly - The hyphens don't separate users, groups and others, they represent missing permissions?

So if I did a chmod o-r on one of those xml files I'd get rwxr-x--x?

I think I get it.

Thanks loads for your help.