need help restoring permissions on my downloads folder

I removed my permissions on my downloads folder using chmod.

can anyone help restore back to default?

Thanks!

54 points · 49 comments · view on lemmy.world

49 Comments

eager_eagle@lemmy.world · 72 pts · 2y (14 replies)

sudo chmod 755 ~/Downloads

assuming you don't need a recursive solution for subdirectories

bitchkat@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y (6 replies)

Sudo is completely unnecessary here. If the owner changed, use chown first reset the user. Then use chmod to change permissions.

Another_username@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

You’re correct…sudo wasn’t necessary

eager_eagle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y (4 replies)

that's probably right, though sudo will work every time

dohpaz42@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y (3 replies)

You should only use elevated privileges only when you need to. Otherwise you risk catastrophic failure.

WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2y (2 replies)

No I did not use "sudo rm -rf /*". How did you know?

bushvin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Dude! That’s just plain wrong!

If you wanter do remove the French language packs, you should have run

sudo rm -fr /*
youngGoku@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

NSFL

tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net · 7 pts · 2y (6 replies)

-R to recurse. Good for chmod and chown

eager_eagle@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y (2 replies)

useful for chown, less so for chmod: I almost never want my dirs and files with the same permissions, and I made this mistake a few times.

find dir -type f -exec chmod 644 -- {} +
find dir -type d -exec chmod 755 -- {} +
toynbee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

If all you need is to restore read permissions, you could use symbolic rather than octal:

chmod -R a+r $DIR

If you don't want to grant read permissions to everyone you can replace the a with whichever applies of ugo for user, group or other.

caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 2y

Go over it with a second chmod -R but with -X to add execute but only to directories

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Don't give all your files execution permissions.

chmod 644 -R Downloads
chmod +x Downloads
tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

That's the same as 755, except you are only setting execute on the folder?

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y

Why would you want execute on anything but the folder?

mvirts@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 2y (8 replies)

I love everything about this screenshot

folkrav@lemmy.ca · 59 pts · 2y (7 replies)

The non proportional font on terminal 🤌

pastermil@sh.itjust.works · 22 pts · 2y (6 replies)

I think they should use Comic Sans instead.

folkrav@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Papyrus or bust

brax@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 2y

Webdings

Pretend you're using Ancient Aliens tech

caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Aptos Mono if you want to feel conflicted

pastermil@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)

That one's at least still fixed width

caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Blessing and a curse

pastermil@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y

As long as it's fixed width it's a blessing to me.

Another_username@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 2y (4 replies)

Thanks y’all! chmod 755 worked! Back to drwxr-xr-x

RegalPotoo@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 2y

A quick guide to explain what is going on here, and what the numbers mean: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaMLUoGXUAI21V6.jpg:large

phx@lemmy.ca · 26 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Tip: you can also use chmod u+rwx,g+rx,o+rx etc to add permissions

With the initial letters corresponding to "user", "group" and "other", and (r)was, (w)rite, e(x)ecute for the rest.

In the case of directories, x specifies access to files/etc within the directly (read just let's you see them)

You can also use i.e "o-rw" etc etc to remove existing permissions

lolcatnip@reddthat.com · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

If you use X instead of x it'll add execution permission to directories without making files executable.

phx@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that. It's important when using wildcards or recursive permissions!

billgamesh@lemmy.ml · 23 pts · 2y (6 replies)

I was weirded out by the 12288 filesize. If anyone else is wondering.

So used to seeing 4096 lol

pastermil@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2y (5 replies)

Huh, I thought it's a file, but I saw it's a dir. What's up with that odd value?

SaltyIceteaMaker@iusearchlinux.fyi · 5 pts · 2y (3 replies)

So how i understood from the link it's that in those 4k all file names in that directory are stored. That space can grow if necessary but won't shrink automatically. So i assume that op has alot of files in that directory

Another_username@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I do have a lot of files in that directory…but music has more files and taking more space. Strange…

billgamesh@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 2y (1 reply)

My reading was it wasn't based purely on number of files, but metadata related to files and stuff (idk what that is in ext4, but movies tend to be large and complex related to music). it's probably irrelevant because that's still a really small number on a modern hard drive.

Another_username@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

Ahh yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for sharing the info!

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y

I believe directories contain pointers to the nodes under them, so they get bigger with lots of things in them.

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de · 17 pts · 2y (3 replies)

chmod 755 ~/Downloads

phorq@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 2y (2 replies)

If OP did it recursively they would also need -R

bitchkat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

You don't necessarily want to set files to 755. So I recommend

find Downloads -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;

somethingsomethingidk@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

Your escape didn't show up because of markdown. Use backticks to enclose commands

find Downloads -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 2y (4 replies)

man chmod?

tsonfeir@lemm.ee · 20 pts · 2y (3 replies)

man, chmod!

WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Chmod my man!

mactan@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Chmod my soul

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y

chmod 777

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2y (2 replies)
chmod 644 -R Downloads
chmod +x Downloads

Your welcome

Edit: I just copied the permissions on the other folders

Another_username@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Downloads should be drwxr-x- -x ?

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2y

Whoops I misread the screenshot

venji10@feddit.de · 2 pts · 2y

sudo chmod 777 ~/Downloads

As easy as that!