Folder permissions changed automatically

[coolbud012]

Hey guys first of all I searched a lot on this site but didnt get any exact answer to my questions. Dont know something happened automatically and all the folders permissions changed automatically and there came a lock icon on all of my folders and files. Then I searched on this site and got the solution as this command

sudo chown 777 -R $USER:$USER $HOMEIt solved my problem half way, it removed the lock icon but now all folders permissions are read only so please guide me how to reset all the folder permissions as it was previously?
I'm using ubuntu 12.10
Thanks

[schragge]

sudo chown 777 -R $USER:$USER $HOME

This command looks wrong. You're mixing chmod and chown syntax here. I suppose what you've meant is

sudo chown -R $USER: $HOME
chmod -R 777 $HOME

Still, I advise you against running the second command: although it'll give you full access to all your files, it also will make them all executable and world-writeable in the process. Instead, try this

chmod -R ug+rwX ~

This will give the owner and group members read and write access plus make directories searcheable and retain execute bit on files that already have it set.

[slickymaster]

Assuming that you are referring to your home directory, you can:

find ~ -type d -exec chmod u+rwx \{\} \;

Note that this will only work for folders, not files, and will set the read, write and execute permissions for the owner of the directory.

[Impavidus]

chmod -R u=rwX $HOME

[Lisiano]

If you want to set your home directory to Read/Write for you and NOT for everyone else (Other users on the system), run this command

chmod -R u=rwX,g=rX,o= $HOME