Ok so I have a problem with setting specific permissions on one of my partitions.

I have a file system on my second partition that is basically where i keep all my files, its a total of 17 folders and those 17 folder have files and other foilder in it. here is a basic layout

hdb1
|
backups
|
17 folders (APPZ,MP3,Movies,ect.....)
|
More folders and file withing the above mention files.

So for example the MP3 folder has mp3 files and 3 sub-folders that have more Mp3.

What I want to be able to do is use chmod chgrp chown to set the following permission

755 for all folders

644 for all files

I will set the owner and group to root

this file system is used as a samba share and a ftp diretory eventually i want to manipulate permissions and group , users so i can allow certain users and groups to have access to certain folders.

i have tried using the -R switch in the following matter:

chmod -R 755 backups\ <-- but this makes files and folder 755 permissions

so after wards i have to go in and do

chmod -R 644 *.* < but i have to go into every single directory and do this which sucks when i have to do changes to all files.

Is there a easy way to do this?

thanks in advance.

chmod -R u=rwX,go=rX ...



Cheers,
Tink

That worked like a charm! Thanks very much now i just have to play around with it and figure out the sweet spot. Im guessing that letter permissions are more flexible than number ones? Thanks very much again

Yes, the letter permissions are more flexible. With the letters you can use + and - to change part of the permissions as well as = to set an absolute value. The numeric form is an absolute value only.

pcorajr,

Another option is to use a pair of find commands like the ones below.

Sets the permissions on all directories below "top_dir" to 755.

Likewise, for files, permission 644.

A second tip for you would be to add setGID bit to the directory permissions. This will make any new files/directories in the directory be owned by the same group as the directory itself (kinda like "group inheritance"). This can help you in avoiding unnecessary chgrp's/chown's.
There is no similar trick for setting the owner, though.

Third tip, changing owner and group can be done with 1 command, chown. You don't need to use both chown and chgrp.
ie:
would change both user and group ownership in one go.