Linux – chmod -R makes files in child folders ureadable for some reason

chmodlinuxpermissions

I was adjusting the permissions when setting up some WordPress themes, and ran chmod 664 -R theme-dir/* It worked fine on the files in the root of the directory, but all the files in subdirectories now read like this when I ls -l:

?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? core_functions.php
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? css
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? custom_functions.php
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? images
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? import_settings.php
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? js
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? options_trim.php
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? page_templates
?---------  ? ? ? ?            ? post_thumbnails_trim.php
?---------+ ? ? ? ?            ? shortcodes

I can't cd to any of the subdirectories, and I also can't delete them. I've never seen anything like this, anybody ever run into something similar?

Best Answer

Accessing the contents (or more specifically file metadata except for filename) of a directory requires that the directory have the execute bit set.

Your recursive chmod removed that permission, so you lost that access. If you are using the -R option of chmod is better to avoid using the numeric version of the permissions, and instead run (using your desired state as an example) chmod -R ug=rwX,o=rX. The capital X there means set the X bit only on directories or files that have at least one x set. Also you might want to use 644 (u=rwX,go=rX) unless you really need group users to write.

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