File & Directory Permissions

How Permissions Are Set: Keep in mind that our network is set up with Windows XP PCs accessing a Sun Solaris Unix file server. Samba is the software that allows this communication between different operating systems.

New files can be created in several ways:

1. While logged onto a Unix/Linux computer in the Department while using Unix/Linux commands.

2. While logged onto a Windows PC in the Department.

3. While logged onto a computer outside the Department network and uploaded to your Department account (for example, using SSH).

When files are created in the above examples, all the files will have default permissions assigned to them. In example one and two above, the default permissions for any file created while logged onto a Unix/Linux or Windows computer in the Department will be set to 700 (click here for info about what these number mean). Permissions of 700 mean that no one may look at the contents of that file or change the contents. If this is a web-related file you must change the permissions to 755 so the file can be looked at by a web browser such as Internet Explorer.

When uploading new files from outside the Department network to the Department file server (for example, when uploading files created at home to your Department account on earth), the permissions of the new files that are uploaded will have permissions set by the upload software. In the case of SSH, the permissions for files would be 644 and for directories, 755. These default SSH permissions are fine for web-related files and directories that are to be viewed by anyone on the web but are not the proper permissions if you don't want anyone looking at the contents of the file.

It is strongly suggested that you change the default file and directory upload permissions to 700 in the SSH software. It is more secure and you can easily change the permissions on files and directories to make them web visible.