Tools

chmod Cheat Sheet

Print-ready cheat sheet for chmod, organized for fast lookup, study, and desk-side use

Source
chmod(1) Manual Page
License
MIT
Updated
2026-03-27

Sample

What's in this cheat sheet

  • Numeric Mode
  • Symbolic Mode
  • Common Permissions
  • Directory Permissions
  • Special Bits
  • Recursive
  • umask
  • Common Patterns

Octal Permission Digits

4Read (r)
2Write (w)
1Execute (x)
0No permission

Three-Digit Format

chmod 755 file    # rwxr-xr-x
chmod 644 file    # rw-r--r--
chmod 700 file    # rwx------
chmod 600 file    # rw-------

Digit Calculation

7 (4+2+1)rwx — read, write, execute
6 (4+2)rw- — read, write
5 (4+1)r-x — read, execute
4r-- — read only
3 (2+1)-wx — write, execute
2-w- — write only
1--x — execute only
0--- — no permissions

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