🦊 "Believe It!" - Mastering Linux File Permissions with Naruto 🍥

In the shinobi world, (I don't know this first-hand, this is only for presentation) not everyone can access the Hokage's scrolls or enter top-secret villages.

Similarly, in the Linux world, not all users can read, write, and execute every file. That's where Linux permissions and the legendary change commands come in:

• chmod – Change a file’s jutsu access level (permissions)
• chown – Change the ninja who controls the file (owner)
• chgrp – Change the clan responsible for it (group)

Today, we'll walk through real-world examples of these commands, with Naruto and his pals.

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🗂️ Table of Contents

• Setup: Hidden Leaf Village Training Grounds
• chown: Who Owns the File?
• chgrp: Clan Control
• chmod: Jutsu Access Levels
  • Understanding Numeric Permissions
  • Symbolic Notation Examples
  • Understanding Symbolic Permissions
• Bonus: Hidden Jutsu for Directory Permissions
• Summary Table: Ninja Commands
• Final Words from Ichiraku Ramen

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🍃 Setup: Hidden Leaf Village Training Grounds

Let’s create a playground for our ninjas to train in. Open your terminal and run:

mkdir -p ~/ninja_village/mission_scrolls
cd ~/ninja_village
touch naruto.txt sasuke.txt sakura.txt

These are the shinobi profiles. Inside mission_scrolls, we’ll keep top-secret files. We'll take a look at this later.

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🥷 chown: Who Owns the File?

In the ninja world, being assigned to a mission means having ownership of that task. Similarly, chown gives control of a file to a specific user.

Let’s say Kakashi-sensei gives Naruto his own scroll.

sudo chown naruto naruto.txt

Hmmm...What did we miss?

If you created naruto as a user before using chown or recognized that the cmd would not work, I want to encourage you to keep learn! We are actually grasping the concepts!

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Create naruto as a user and try the chown cmd again...

Now Naruto is the owner of naruto.txt.

Check ownership with:

ls -l

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👪 chgrp: Clan Control

Sometimes missions are assigned to a clan, like the Uchiha or Hyuga. chgrp lets us assign a file to a group.

Let’s put Sasuke's file under the Uchiha clan’s control:

sudo chgrp uchiha sasuke.txt

You can view the group with:

ls -l

Make sure the group uchiha exists:

sudo groupadd uchiha

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🔐 chmod: Jutsu Access Levels

Now comes the fun part... permissions! Think of these as who can read, write, or execute (perform jutsu) on a file.

If Naruto’s file should only be read by him and no one else:

sudo chmod 600 naruto.txt

To make Sakura’s file world-readable:

sudo chmod 644 sakura.txt

If Sasuke wants to execute a mysterious script:

sudo chmod 755 sasuke.txt

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🔢 Understanding Numeric Permissions

Linux permission numbers are calculated using:

• 4 = Read (r)
• 2 = Write (w)
• 1 = Execute (x)

Add them together to get the level of access:

Number	Meaning	Binary	Example Description
7	rwx (full)	111	Read, write, and execute
6	rw-	110	Read and write only
5	r-x	101	Read and execute only
4	r--	100	Read only
3	-wx	011	Write and execute
2	-w-	010	Write only
1	--x	001	Execute only
0	---	000	No permissions

So chmod 755 means:

• Owner = 7 = rwx
• Group = 5 = r-x
• Others = 5 = r-x

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🔁 Symbolic Notation Examples (u, g, o + - =)

Instead of using numbers, you can also use symbolic characters:

📥 Add permissions (+)

Give Naruto’s file execute power (so he can run his own shadow clone jutsu):

sudo chmod u+x naruto.txt

📤 Remove permissions (-)

Prevent others from reading Sakura’s file:

sudo chmod o-r sakura.txt

🟰 Set exact permissions (=)

Only allow the group (Team 7) to read and write Sasuke’s file—nothing else:

sudo chmod g=rw sasuke.txt

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🈳 Understanding Symbolic Permissions

Symbolic permissions allow you to modify file access in a more human-readable way using characters and symbols instead of numbers.

🔑 Syntax of Symbolic Mode:

chmod [who][operator][permissions] filename

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👥 [who] – Who are you assigning permissions to?

Symbol	Who it affects	Meaning
u	User	The owner of the file
g	Group	The group assigned to file
o	Others	All other users
a	All	Equivalent to u, g, and o

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⚙️ [operator] – What are you doing?

Symbol	Action	Meaning
+	Add	Add specified permissions
-	Remove	Remove specified permissions
=	Assign exactly	Set only the specified permissions (removes others)

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📜 [permissions] – What type of access?

Symbol	Permission Type	Description
r	Read	View the contents of a file
w	Write	Modify or delete a file
x	Execute	Run the file as a program/script

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🧪 Example Combinations:

Command	Meaning
chmod u+x file.txt	Add execute permission for the user
chmod g-w file.txt	Remove write permission from the group
chmod o=r file.txt	Set others to have only read permission
chmod a+rw file.txt	Give read and write permission to user, group, and others
chmod ug=rw file.txt	Set user and group to have read/write, and remove other permissions
chmod o= file.txt	Remove all permissions from others

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🧪 Bonus: Hidden Jutsu for Directory Permissions

Inside mission_scrolls, let’s add a secret mission file and set special permissions.

touch mission_scrolls/s-rank.txt
sudo chmod 700 mission_scrolls
sudo chmod 600 mission_scrolls/s-rank.txt

Only the Hokage (root user) can access this!

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🧭 Summary Table: Ninja Commands

Command	Meaning	Naruto Analogy
chown	Change file owner	Assign mission to a specific ninja
chgrp	Change group ownership	Assign mission to a clan
chmod (numeric)	Set permissions with numbers	Broad mission rank setting
chmod (symbolic)	Add/remove exact permissions	Grant or revoke access like chakra seals

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🍜 Final Words from Ichiraku Ramen

Managing file permissions is like managing missions in the ninja world, you need the right person (or group) with the right access. Give too much access, and you risk a rogue ninja (or hacker) sabotaging the mission. Too little, and the mission might fail before it starts.

So next time you're setting permissions, channel your inner Hokage, and do it with precision.

“I’m not gonna run away, I never go back on my word! That’s my nindo: my ninja way!” – Naruto Uzumaki

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