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Dan Higgins
Dan Higgins

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Day 4 of #30DaysRHCSAChallenge – Who Knew File Permissions Had More Drama Than a Reality Show?

Today I faced the Linux filesystem like a cautious archaeologist discovering an ancient tomb… only the tomb had permissions issues, missing files, and a bash tantrum.

📚 Table of Contents

Mission

  • Master file and directory permissions

  • Practice chmod, chown, umask

  • Not break the internet while doing it

The Journey

Created a directory

Gave our heroic dev some ownership

Then came the dramatic moment: writing HTML into a file.

I confidently typed and Bash exploded with bash: !: event not found!

Image description

What even happened

Turns out Bash thought ! meant "find a command from history" instead of just letting me express my hot take on cats.

Also… I forgot to include the actual file name, so Bash tried to write into a directory. Double fail.

Lesson of the Day

Use single quotes when your string contains a '!'. File written. Permissions set. Cat lovers pleased.

RHCSA Objectives Smashed

  1. Set file and directory ownership and permissions

  2. Created and manipulated files in nested directories

  3. Debugged Bash behavior like a command-line therapist

  4. Learned to never trust a ! inside double quotes

Today I Learned

  • chmod and chown are your best friends—and occasional drama queens

  • Bash has feelings, especially about exclamation marks

  • Always specify the full file path, or Bash gets confused and dramatic

Tomorrow

We dive into umask, default permissions, and why new files sometimes act like they’re born with an attitude.

Follow the full series here: #30DaysRHCSAChallenge on Dev.to

And yes, I'll probably make a sticker that says "Don't double quote your !"

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