Set permissions on directories, but not files

[Robert_Jewell]

I have a series of directories and files, many with different permissions set. What I would like to do is set all directories to 755, while keeping the files set to 744.

Can I do this in one command or must I run chmod -R 755 and then go to each directory and removing the 'x' value from each file afterward?

Thanks in advance!

-Bob

[Patrick Wallek · Accepted solution]

Use find.

cd /somedir
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Bob:

You could do something like:

# find /path -xdev -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +

This will recursively descend '/path' but not cross any mountpoints ('-xdev') looking for directories (' -type d') and when found, change the permissions to 755.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Robert_Jewell]

Thanks guys. Probably should have thought of that :-),

-Bob

[Bill Hassell]

> while keeping the files set to 744.

Are you saying that all the files in these directories are scripts? Never set the execute bit on data files, only on scripts. There are a number of nasty side effects to having data files set to executable. The correct mode would be 644, not 744.