Security

Each file (and directory) has associated access rights, which may be found by typing ls -l. Also, ls -lg gives additional information as to which group owns the file . Here is an example -rwxrw-r-- 1 axa1160 Anjay 2450 Nov12 03:23 mystuff

In the left-hand column is a 10 symbol string consisting of the symbols d, r, w, x, -, and, occasionally, s or S. If d is present, it will be at the left hand end of the string, and indicates a directory: otherwise - will be the starting symbol of the string.

The 9 remaining symbols indicate the permissions, or access rights, and are taken as three groups of 3.

• The left group of 3 gives the file permissions for the user that owns the file (or directory) (axa1160 in the above example).
• The middle group gives the permissions for the group of people to whom the file (or directory) belongs (Anjay in the above example).
• The rightmost group gives the permissions for all others.

The symbols r, w, etc., have slightly different meanings depending on whether they refer to a simple file or to a directory.