What Does “chmod +x” Command In Linux and Unix?
chmod is very useful tool to manage file modes like read write execute. One of the most used option for chmod is +x which stands for execution rights. In this tutorial we will look different use cases for user or owner, group and others roles.
List Current User and Group Of A File
We generally need to know given file current user and group. We will use ls command with -al options in order to list this information.
1 | $ ls -al app.sh |
Change File Mode For The User
We can use u user before the plus in order to enable user execution right of the given file. In this example we will enable user execution of file app.sh
1 | $ chmod u+x app.sh |
Change File Mode For Group
We can use g group before the plus in order to enable group execution right of the given file. In this examples we will enable group execution of file app.sh
1 | $ chmod g+x app.sh |
Change File Mode For Other
Others is special group which covers all users in a Linux system. We can enable the execution right of the all users in a file with o like below.
1 | $ chmod o+x app.sh |
Change File Mode For All
In some cases we can see the +x without a definition. This is used for all which is equivalent for user , group and others . Alternative is adding a like below.
1 | $ chmod a+x app.sh |
OR
1 | $ chmod +x app.sh |
