Quick Script to Set File Permissions

When configuring a web server for the first time, balancing file permissions between locally created, FTP uploaded and PHP created files can be difficult until everything is configured correctly. The following script can help correct any issues and reset all files to a standard.

#!/bin/bash
TARGET_PATH=/var/www
NEW_USER=www-data
NEW_GROUP=www-data
 
if [ -n "$1" ]
then
        TARGET_PATH=$1
fi
 
for i in $(find ${TARGET_PATH} -type d)
do
        chown ${NEW_USER}:${NEW_GROUP} $i
        chmod 750 $i
done
 
for i in $(find ${TARGET_PATH} -type f)
do
        chown ${NEW_USER}:${NEW_GROUP} $i
        chmod 640 $i
done

Be sure to change TARGET_PATH, NEW_USER and GROUP_USER to your appropriate settings. TARGET_PATH can also be modified when calling the script by including the path required as the first parameter (Eg. ./setperms.sh /var/www).

The permissions set in the script (640) are as follows:

Owner: Read & Write

Group: Read Only

Others: Denied

Owner and Group are also allowed to Execute (i.e. browse) directories (750).