File: coreutils.info,  Node: Symbolic Modes,  Next: Numeric Modes,  Prev: Mode Structure,  Up: File permissions

27.2 Symbolic Modes
===================

“Symbolic modes” represent changes to files’ mode bits as operations on
single-character symbols.  They allow you to modify either all or
selected parts of files’ mode bits, optionally based on their previous
values, and perhaps on the current ‘umask’ as well (*note Umask and
Protection::).

   The format of symbolic modes is:

     [ugoa...][-+=]PERMS...[,...]

where PERMS is either zero or more letters from the set ‘rwxXst’, or a
single letter from the set ‘ugo’.

   The following sections describe the operators and other details of
symbolic modes.

* Menu:

* Setting Permissions::          Basic operations on permissions.
* Copying Permissions::          Copying existing permissions.
* Changing Special Mode Bits::   Special mode bits.
* Conditional Executability::    Conditionally affecting executability.
* Multiple Changes::             Making multiple changes.
* Umask and Protection::              The effect of the umask.