File permissions and attributes
File systems use permissions and attributes to know who can access what data.
Danger
File permissions only work on a booted system and does not protect the stored data.
Reading permissions
Use the ls command with the -l option to see a list of all files in a directory with their full permissions:
[root@arch ~]# ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 13 20:18 demo
The output columns work like this:
| d | rwx | rwx | rwx | + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Directory (d) or file (-) | Owner permissions | Group permissions | Other permissions | Extended attributes (+) |
The letters mean:
- d - Directory
- - - No permission given
- r - Read permission
- w - Write permission
- x - Execute permission