I copied a whole directory from a vfat partition, and there are many files and directories in it. I want to change all the directories to 755, all the files to 644, how can I do it easily? chmod?

When you say "from a vfat" partition, do you mean you
copied them, or is it mounted (still on vfat)?


Cheers,
Tink

Sorry, I mean copied.

As you know, the right of files that copied from a vfat partition is 755, I want them be 644.

Cheers,
Tink

edit: opps looks like it took me 20 minutes to reply from when i clicked the reply button,
why are you guys giving such a convoluted example when it can just be done like i showed?

if the files are still residing on the vfat partition, then, in short you cant, vfat does not support file permissions like ext3 and the like do. you can remount the file system with different premission, but i dont think that is what you are asking for.

if you did indeed copy the vfat partition onto a linux partition then just go like so:
(i think the -R (recursive) tag might be the trick you were looking for)

Is it like this:
find /<path/to/your/files> -type f -exec chmod 644 {}
find /<path/to/your/files> -type d -exec chmod 755 {}

but it displays:
find: missing argument to `-exec'

You have to include the \;

find /<path/to/your/files> -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find /<path/to/your/files> -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Because your non-convoluted example won't allow him
to change into directories afterwards?


Cheers,
Tink

find /<path/to/your/files> -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find /<path/to/your/files> -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

This commend is ended by ";" ?

Yes, as it is done in three posts now ... :}


Cheers,
Tink

But do you think a commend ended with ";" can be executed?
I can't execute it.

Works here, has for years ...
It wouldn't work, for instance, if you had a SPACE
between the \ and the ; ...

May I suggest that you copy & paste my example
from the 2nd post, and just edit the path bit... ?


Cheers,
Tink

Thank you Tinkster! It works now!
Can you tell me the meaning of this commend? I really have the interest to know it.

In brief ... :)

find is a very flexible tool to allow you locating
files by varied criteria and do a variety of things in
response ...

The default is to print the name of whatever matches
the criteria.

What we've done here is:

1.)
Search the directory under /path/to/your/files for anything
that is an ordinary file (type f), and change the permissions
to 664 (-exec chmod 644 {} \;)
-exec tells find to run a command against each found file.
It consists of three parts, that's the -exec, the {} and the \;
-exec is the start of the phrase (followed by the actual command),
{} is the placeholder for the files name, and \; terminates the
exec phrase ... you could, for instance, put other parameters
to your command behind the file-name ...
(e.g. -exec cp {} /tmp/results/. \; )


2.)
does the same thing, only for directories (type d)

For details read the man-page
man find


Cheers,
Tink