48

Is there a way to get files/directories permissions in number format "0777" instead of "-rw--r--r" format?

amosrivera
  • 1,226
  • 4
  • 13
  • 20

3 Answers3

60

You can display the octal permissions for a file using the stat command:

stat -c %a [filename]

Or by using find:

find [path] -printf '%m %p\n'

Note that find is recursive, and will print all files in all subdirectories as well. You can use options like maxdepth or prune to stop it from recursing.

Cedric
  • 809
  • 7
  • 3
15

I know this is an old post but I found it while looking for a solution to this, and expanded upon it:

stat -c '%a - %n'

That will show the file permissions and the file name. This allows you to see the permissions of every file in a folder with:

stat -c '%a - %n' *

I also took this a step further and made an alias:

alias perms="stat -c '%a - %n'"

So typing perms * will give me the permissions of every file or perms file.php will give me the permissions of just that one file.

For users who find this while looking for a solution for OSX:

Versions of OSX after 10.10 no longer have a version of stat that accepts the -c parameter. If you get an error about "illegal option -- c" then you should be able to use this stat command:

stat -f "%A -  %N" *

This can also be aliased like the previous command I shared:

alias perms="stat -f '%A -  %N'"
rmmoul
  • 352
  • 5
  • 15
  • This is great. Any way to make it default to showing all w/out having to add an asterisk? Sort of a ternary or something, where doing `perms` is the same as `perms *` unless user entered something like `perms `? – J. Scott Elblein Mar 16 '23 at 20:58
  • @J.ScottElblein you might have to make a bash script for that. – rmmoul Mar 17 '23 at 00:03
  • 1
    Ended up trying to create a ternary myself; got it 99% working, then ended up asking the linux gurus (in case ya wanna use it, too): https://stackoverflow.com/q/75772498/553663 – J. Scott Elblein Mar 18 '23 at 03:48
8

You can also use this workaround:

find FILENAME/DIRECROY -printf "%m:%f\n"

Example check my Videos directory:

find Videos -printf "%m:%f\n"

755:Videos

Another Method:

Used to list all directory files with their permissions

ls -l | awk '{k=0;for(i=0;i<=8;i++)k+=((substr($1,i+2,1)~/[rwx]/) \
             *2^(8-i));if(k)printf("%0o ",k);print}'
Maythux
  • 82,867
  • 54
  • 239
  • 271