Setting Chmod Value with Python

Unix Permissions

In this article, I will be talking about the chmod function of the os library in python. To set the permissions of a file or directory in Python, you can use the os module's chmod() function. This function takes two arguments: the path of the file or directory, and the desired permissions expressed as an octal number.

For example, to give read and write permissions to the owner and read permission to everyone else for a file called myfile.txt, you could do the following:

import os

os.chmod("myfile.txt", 0o644)

The octal number 0o644 represents the permissions rw-r--r--. The first digit (6) represents the owner's permissions, the second digit (4) represents the group's permissions, and the third digit (4) represents the permissions for others. Each digit is a combination of the permissions r (read), w (write), and x (execute), where r=4, w=2, and x=1.

You can also use the chmod() function to set the permissions of a directory. For example, to give the owner read, write, and execute permissions, and read and execute permissions to everyone else for a directory called mydir, you could do the following:

import os

os.chmod("mydir", 0o755)

The octal number 0o755 represents the permissions rwxr-xr-x.

Keep in mind that the chmod() function will only work if you have permission to change the permissions of the file or directory.

In this article, I have been talking about the chmod function of the os library in python. Take care and see you in my next post.