Tools: What `-rwxr-xr-x` Really Means (2026)
File mode
How to update the permissions
Numeric mode
Symbolic mode Ever wondered what this -rw-r--r--@ means in this list? This is called the file mode. It shows the file type and the permissions set on that file or directory. Let's break down what each bit represents. The first bit represents the file type. It can indicate a regular file, a directory, or a symlink. Note: A symlink is like a shortcut. It points to another file or directory. The next 9 bits represent the permissions for the file/directory. r represents read permission
w represents write permissionx represents execute permission They come in sets of 3: In this example rwx r-x r-x: You may also notice an extra @ at the end of the output from ls -l on macOS. That is not part of the file mode itself. It usually indicates that the file or directory has extended attributes. We can update permissions with the chmod command.It has two modes that we can use: Let's go through numeric mode first.Each of these permissions in rwx has a number: These numbers are used to represent permissions in numeric form. For example, rwxr-xr-x means the owner has full permissions, while group and others have read and execute permissions. This is written as 755. rwxr-xr-x = (4 + 2 + 1) (4 + 1) (4 + 1) = 7 5 5 Here is a handy table for numeric permissions: Wondering about other combinations, such as -w- ? Yes, they are valid. Some combinations are uncommon or less useful in practice, but experimenting with them in a test directory is a good way to understand how permissions behave. Now let's take a look at symbolic mode, which you can use with chmod. chmod [who][operator][permissions] file
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