How to gain permission to read/modify in Ubuntu?

Question

I just installed Ubuntu and when I open some file in the terminal then i can access that file as root using sudo -i to change ownership. However, if I modify a file in my local server folder (/var/www) I get a permission denied error.

I have already changed the permissions using chmod -Rf /var/www/myfolder but I can access using the terminal but cannot modify.

So, any one have any idea about how to change the permissions of the file? I have also tried to right click on that folder but that shows me only one permission like read so how can I solve this error?

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking how you can change permissions for the folder /var/www/myfolder to get write permission. Depending on what you want, you can use one of the following methods.

First check the current permissions:

$ ls -l /var/www/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root 4096 Aug 19 14:21 myfolder

There are three sets of permissions, those of the file's owner, those of the members of the file owner's group and those for everyone else. In the case above, drwxr-xr-x means:

• d : this is a directory
• rwx : The file's owner has read (r), write (w) and execute (x) rights.
• r-x : The memebers of the file's owner's group have only read and execute rights.
• r-x : So does everybody else.

Now, change the permissions:

1. Give write permissions to EVERYBODY:

   $ sudo chmod -R a+w  /var/www/myfolder
   $ ls -l /var/www/
   drwxrwxrwx  2 root     root 4096 Aug 19 14:21 myfolder
   

2. Give write permissions to the folder's OWNER:

   $ sudo chmod -R u+w  /var/www/myfolder
   $ ls -l /var/www/
   drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root 4096 Aug 19 14:32 myfolder
   

3. Give write permissions to EVERYBODY:

   $ sudo chmod -R a+w  /var/www/myfolder
   $ ls -l /var/www/
   drwxrwxrwx  2 root     root 4096 Aug 19 14:33 myfolder