Listing all write access files on command line

akamad · 03-10-2007, 08:29 PM

Hi all.
I'm a bash newbie and was wondering what script/command line command I can use to list all files that I have write access to.
Thanks.

wjevans_7d1@yahoo.co · 03-10-2007, 08:50 PM

To do this for all files in the current directory, use this script:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/bash

for xxx in *
do
  if access -w $xxx
  then
    echo $xxx
  fi
done

For something which covers more than one directory, do this:

Code:

man find

Hope this helps.

akamad · 03-10-2007, 09:08 PM

I tried your script. But unfortunately it says that the "access" command is not found. I'm using Kubuntu 6.06, would that make a difference?

rch1231 · 03-11-2007, 01:18 AM

try this:

find . -user <username> -exec ls -lad {} \;

this will give you a list of all files you own in the current directory and below. You can refine it if you want with a few options. The . implies current directory which can be replaced with / if you want to look everywhere you are allowed to.

wjevans_7d1@yahoo.co · 03-12-2007, 04:47 PM

To my surprise, I found that whether one has the access command is, indeed distribution-related.

For a more complete solution, and one that gives you a greater working knowledge of Unix/Linux, follow rch1231's solution.

But mine will work on the current working directory if you change it so it doesn't use access:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/bash

for xxx in *
do
  bash -c "cat >> $xxx < /dev/null" 2>/dev/null
  if [ $? = 0 ]
  then
    echo $xxx
  fi
done

akamad · 03-13-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wjevans_7d1@yahoo.co

To my surprise, I found that whether one has the access command is, indeed distribution-related.

For a more complete solution, and one that gives you a greater working knowledge of Unix/Linux, follow rch1231's solution.

But mine will work on the current working directory if you change it so it doesn't use access:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/bash

for xxx in *
do
  bash -c "cat >> $xxx < /dev/null" 2>/dev/null
  if [ $? = 0 ]
  then
    echo $xxx
  fi
done

That seems to do the trick at first glance. I'll play around with it as well as rch1231's command. Thank you all.

wjevans_7d1@yahoo.co · 03-14-2007, 11:37 AM

Something just occurred to me.

In addition to other differences, my solution finds files you can write to; rch1231's solution finds files you own. It's possible for a given file to be in either of those two sets but not in the other.

rch1231's solution is based on the find command. I'm not aware of any option to find which allows you to test whether you have permissions to write to a file.