DevOps
A Comprehensive Guide to Setting Up User Based Permissions in Linux
Introduction
To give a user only read permission to a file or directory using Access Control Lists (ACL), you can use the setfacl command. ACLs allow you to set more granular permissions beyond the traditional file permission system.
Read-Only Permission
1. Check Current ACLs (Optional)
Before making changes, check the existing ACLs for the file or directory:
getfacl filename
2. Set Read-Only Permission
To give a user read-only access to a file:
sudo setfacl -m u:username:r filename
To give a user read-only access to a directory:
sudo setfacl -m u:username:rX directoryname- r: Read permission.
- X: Execute permission for directories only (needed for navigation).
3. Verify the ACL
Check the updated ACL to ensure the permissions were applied:
getfacl filename
Expected output:
# file: filename# owner: ownername# group: groupnameuser:username:r--
4. Recursive Application (Optional)
If you want to apply the read-only permission to all files and subdirectories within a directory:
sudo setfacl -R -m u:username:rX directoryname
5. Remove ACL Permission
If you need to revoke the user's read-only permission later:
sudo setfacl -x u:username filename
Conclusion
By using the above steps we can easily manage access control of files and directories for users.
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