Permz - Quickly change file permissions in any file manager

Question

Designed to be integrated into any file manager, permz is a bash script which presents a GUI menu.  You can use it to quickly change file permissions and ownership as a normal user or as root, and delete files as root.  I wrote this because I have yet to see a file manager that isn't cumbersome for this - the mechanism is usually buried on a second tab of the Properties window, and changing permissions often involves multiple clicks in a grid. To change the owner of a file, you need to type the username. And if the file is owned by root, you can't do anything.
permz --help
Presents a GUI menu for changing file permissions/ownership. May be run
as a normal user or root.
Requires: zenity gksu
Optional: sudo (recommended to prevent multiple root password prompts)
Usage: permz FILE [...]
MENU FUNCTIONS:
rwxrwxrwx Sets file(s) to given permissions
Sticky Clear/Set Performs "chmod -t" or +t to clear or set the sticky
bit. You may select to clear/set sticky in addition
to changing other permissions.
Recursive go-rxw "chmod -R go-rxw" on file(s) recursively, denying
access to non-owners
Recursive go-w "chmod -R go-w" on file(s) recursively, denying write
to non-owners
Recursive ugo+rX "chmod -R ugo+rX" giving read access to all. Also
sets +x for directories and executables.
Recursive ugo+w "chmod -R ugo+w" on file(s), giving write to all
(You may select several compatible recursive functions above at once)
Owner USER As ROOT Sets ownership to USER:USER as root
DELETE As ROOT Deletes file(s) as root. Must be used alone or with
"Perform Recursively" (to delete directories - USE
WITH CAUTION). Not available if permz is run as root.
Perform As ROOT Run as root to change selected permissions.
(Use of root is automatic when changing ownership)
Perform Recursively Adds -R to all chmod, chown, and delete commands to
descend into subdirectories. Use in conjunction with
any other functions. (Recursion is automatic for
"Recursive" functions above)
Current su command is set to: gksu -gS
If you're somewhat familiar with bash, adding additional options or changing the existing ones is straightforward.
I have tested it pretty thoroughly but if you do encounter anything amiss please let me know.
More details at http://igurublog.wordpress.com/downloads/script-permz/
And in the AUR at http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=36978
Instructions for integrating permz into PCManFM-Mod are here.
Last edited by IgnorantGuru (2010-05-05 13:53:08)

Answer 1

rransom wrote:Recursive ugo+rX would be more useful than "Recursive ugo+r (dirs +x)".  (The +X feature of chmod is available at least in GNU coreutils, FreeBSD, and POSIX 2003.)
Done - thanks for the tip.  I also left the old code active in there with just the menu option disabled, so if anyone wants it the other way or wants both it's easy to enable.  The difference is that the old way won't make any files +x, just dirs.
permz doesn't provide every possible setting of permissions, just common ones, so you may want to customize it.  But I used to have these as user actions when I used Krusader and I found these were the handy ones, at least for me.