CODEWITHSUNDEEP
macospermissionschmod
makansij
makansij

Reputation: 9865

chmod just does nothing on my Mac?

I am the owner, as shown by ls -alts, but for whatever reason, I can't change the permissions of the files like I want. I want to make the file read only:

chmod 400 <file-name>

however, the ls -al still shows -rwxrwxrwx.

The file is on an external drive. I know that sometimes this causes issues when users want to read and write. However, in this case, I'd like to make the access to my files more restrictive not less restrictive.

I checked out this SO question but I don't see an option to make the permissions more restrictive.

thanks.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3663

Answers (1)

Gordon Davisson
Gordon Davisson

Reputation: 125708

You can't change the permissions on the file because it's on a FAT32 volume, and that volume format does not support storing file permissions (see, for example, this askubuntu question). But if all you want to to is make the file read-only, you can get that effect by locking it (and the lock attribute is supported on FAT32). You can either use the Finder's Get Info window (check the "Locked" box), or use the command chflags uchg <file-name>.

Upvotes: 1

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