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Math

chmod Permission Converter (Octal ↔ rwx)

Convert between octal (e.g. 755, 4755) and symbolic (e.g. rwxr-xr-x, rwsr-xr-x) Unix file-mode notations, with the matching chmod command shown live. The three permission triplets correspond to user / group / other, each holding read / write / execute bits, plus three optional special bits: setuid, setgid and sticky.

Permission matrix

  Read (r) Write (w) Execute (x)
Owner (user)
Group
Others

Special bits

chmod command

$ chmod 755 file

Common modes:

Calculates Unix / POSIX permission bits. Does not cover ACLs, SELinux labels or Windows ACLs. On a directory, x means "enter" rather than "execute".

Formula

mode = setuid·4000 + setgid·2000 + sticky·1000 + (u_r·400 + u_w·200 + u_x·100) + (g_r·40 + g_w·20 + g_x·10) + (o_r·4 + o_w·2 + o_x·1) [octal]

Frequently asked

When should I use 755 vs 644 vs 700?

Rule of thumb: 755 for executables and directories that others need to enter (owner full, others read/execute); 644 for regular files (owner read/write, others read-only); 700 / 600 for strictly private directories / files (owner only). SSH private keys must be 600 — OpenSSH refuses to load keys with looser modes — and ~/.ssh must be 700. Web roots are usually 755 with 644 for PHP/HTML files. World-writable 777 should be temporary debugging only; in production prefer group ownership with setgid, or use ACLs.

What do setuid, setgid and sticky bits actually do?

setuid (4000): an executable runs with the owner’s privileges — used by tools like /usr/bin/passwd and sudo that need brief privilege escalation. Modern Linux/BSD ignore it on shell scripts. setgid (2000): an executable runs with the file’s group, and on a directory it makes new files inherit the directory’s group — useful for shared-team folders. sticky (1000): on a directory, only the owner of each file (or root) can delete it — classic on /tmp and /var/tmp, which run as 1777. setuid/setgid on regular files is a real security risk and should be audited carefully.

Why does the symbolic form sometimes show s/S or t/T instead of x?

When setuid, setgid or sticky is set, the special bit reuses the matching execute slot: setuid reuses user-x, setgid reuses group-x, sticky reuses other-x. Lowercase s / t means both the special bit AND execute are set; uppercase S / T means only the special bit is set (execute is not). This is the same convention that ls -l and stat have used for decades, and this tool follows it exactly.

Can I paste the full 10-character string from ls -l?

Yes. The first character in ls -l output is the file type (- regular, d directory, l symlink, c/b device, etc.). This tool strips that prefix automatically and parses the remaining nine permission characters, so pasting "-rwxr-xr-x", "drwxr-xr-x" or "lrwxrwxrwx" directly into the symbolic field works as expected.

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