How to Set-Change Ownership on Files and Directories By the Command Line on Debian 7 Wheezy Linux

Debian Linux Setting Ownership on File System

The Tutorial shows you Step-by-step How to Setup or Change the Ownership over Files and Directories on Debian 7 Wheezy Linux.

The Ownership Decide How is the Owner of Files and Directories on the Debian Linux File System.

To Set the Ownership Over Files and Directories is the First, Step in Setting Up Permissions and so Establish a Control and Security over the System.

To Follow the Tutorial you will Need to have a Little Practice to Work on the Debian Linux Console Terminal Command Line.

1. First, Open a Command Line Terminal Console Window
   Cmd/Win & Search for “term”
   (Press “Enter” to Execute Commands)

   Gnome:
   
   KDE:
   
   Lxde:
   
   Xfce:
   

   In case first see: Terminal QuickStart Guide.
   Or Login into Server Shell Shell…

How to Quick Start with Command Line on Debian

GNU/Linux Console Quick Start
Getting-Started with Terminal on Debian

2. Who Can Set/Change the Ownership?.

   Only the Administrators or a Super-User Can Change a File/Directory Ownership!

3. How to Set/Change the Ownership?.

   • To Set/Change Ownership Over a Single File/Directory:

     su -c "chown [myUser]:[myGroup] [myEntity]"

     Where [myUser] is your’s user Name & [myGroup] is your’s user Primary Group.

     How to Look Up Username & Group on Terminal

     Find Username & Group

     Shell Find Username+Group

     For Instance:

     mkdir -p $HOME/hello/world

     Now to Give the ‘world’ Directory to the ‘root’ User do:

     su -c "chown root:root $HOME/hello/world"

     Checking Ownership:

     ls -l $HOME/hello

   • To Set/Change Permissions Recursively Over a Directory and it’s Content (Subdirectories and Files):

     su -c "chown -R [myUser]:[myGroup] [myEntity]"

     For Instance:

     su -c "touch $HOME/hello/world/happy"

     Checking Ownership:

     ls -l $HOME/hello && ls -l $HOME/hello/world

     Now to Get Back the ‘world’ Directory with the ‘happy’ File:)

     su -c "chown -R [myUser]:[myGroup] $HOME/hello/world"

     Check again Ownership like Above…

4. How to Set Permissions on Debian File System

   Debian Permissions Quick Start

   Setting Up Permissions on Debian