Changing Attributes

You can set permissions for all the files and folders on UNIX servers using the Change Attributes command.

File permissions control access various people have to files and folders on an FTP server. They instruct the server about what access rights to grant to different categories of users. You can set permissions for the following categories:

User: Usually whoever uploaded or created the file. This is the account that "owns" the file.
Group: Members of the group to which the owner belongs. Every user on a UNIX system has a unique username and is a member of at least one group.
Other: Everyone who is not the User and is not a member of the Group. Basically "Everyone else."

There are three types of permissions you can set on your folders and files on UNIX servers - Read, Write and Execute permissions.

Each category has three options that allow you to control access based on whether you want people to read, write or execute the file or folder that you are setting permissions on. For example, you can allow the owner to read and write to the files, while the group and public can only read. Note that write permission lets you delete the file, or upload another with the same name and replace it. To set permissions:

1. Open the File Manager for a profile where the files or folders (for which you want to set permissions) exist.
2. Right-click on the name of the file/folder and select Change Attributes.
3. The three user categories are User, Group and Other. Select the permissions you want to grant by checking the Read, Write and Execute boxes for each category.
4. A value is assigned to every permission: Read=4, Write=2 and Execute=1.
5. The Numeric value box contains a three digit number. The first number is the sum total of permissions values for User; the second digit is for Group and the third digit is for Other. Let us suppose that you have selected Read and Write permissions for User and none for Group and Other. In this case, the first digit of the Numeric value will be 6 (sum of 4 which is the numeric value for Read and 2 which the numeric value for Write) and the other two digits will be zero since you granted no permissions to Group and Other. Thus, the Numeric value in this case is 600. This value will be communicated to the UNIX FTP server when you click OK.
6. Click OK.

You can view the attributes you have set for each file or folder from the Attributes column available in the File Manager.