How do I change permissions for a folder and all of its subfolders and files in one step in Linux?

Question

I would like to change permissions of a folder and all its sub folders and files in one step (command) in Linux. I have already tried the below command but it works only for the mentioned folder: chmod 775 /opt/lampp/htdocs Is there a way to set `chmod 755` for `/opt/lampp/htdocs` and all of its content including subfolders and files? Also, in the future, if I create a new folder or file inside `htdocs`, how can the permissions of that automatically be set to `755`? I had a look at this link too: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3740187/how-to-set-default-chmod-in-linux-terminal Thanks in advance. [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3740187/how-to-set-default-chmod-in-linux-terminal

Answer 1

chmod supports recursiveness with param -R so just run chmod -R 755 /opt/lampp/htdocs and that will change the permissions for the existing folders. However, if you want to change the behavior of all future folders or files, you can use umask. If you specifically want to grant specific permissions for future files and folders under a specific path, then you want to use getfacl and setfacl as they're very granular and allow you to do inheritance.