Because UNIX (the system on which the Home Directory permissions are based) was designed to be used by more than one person, permissions determining who has access and how a file or directory can be used must be set.
Types of UNIX Permissions
- READ or LIST permission allows others to view a file or directory. For example, they could use a text editor to see what's in a file that has read permission and could make a copy of this file. Read (or List) permission for a directory lets you list the directory's contents.
- WRITE permission lets others make changes to a file. This permission doesn't necessarily permit others to delete or rename the file. For those actions, you must also have write permission to the directory in which the file resides. If you have write permission in a directory, others can create new files in the directory and delete files from it.
- ACCESS permission (also known as EXECUTE) for a directory lets others open files in the directory and allows access through that directory to a subdirectory.
Permissions for Web Pages
In order to be viewable on the Web, your pages must be set to READ. Also, your home directory, (e.g., /home/mst3k) must be set to allow others to ACCESS the directory's contents, and your public_html directory (which must contain all files you wish others to view on the Web) should be listed as LIST and ACCESS in order for your Web pages to be viewable by others.
Any files created using the Home Directory Service inherit the permissions of their parent directory.
For all other directories, if you plan to share the files with others using the Home Directory Service, you should grant LIST and ACCESS permissions. Otherwise, for all directories except /home/mst3k and /home/mst3k/public_html, we recommend that you set their permissions to PRIVATE.