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Set executable permissions only to executable files

Terminal - Set executable permissions only to executable files
while IFS= read -r -u3 -d $'\0' file; do file "$file" | egrep -q 'executable|ELF' && chmod +x "$file"; done 3< <(find . -type f -print0)
2011-08-18 15:37:23
User: keymon
Functions: chmod egrep file find read
0
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Set executable permissions only to executable files

If you make a mess (like I did) and you removed all the executable permissions of a directory (or you set executable permissions to everything) this can help.

It supports spaces and other special characters in the file paths, but it will work only in bash, GNU find and GNU egrep.

You can complement it with these two commands:

1. add executable permission to directories:

find . type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod +x

2. and remove to files:

find . type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod -x

Or, in the same loop:

while IFS= read -r -u3 -d $'\0' file; do case $(file "$file" | cut -f 2- -d :) in :*executable*|*ELF*|*directory*) chmod +x "$file" ;; *) chmod -x "$file" ;; esac || break done 3< <(find . -print0)

Ideas stolen from Greg's wiki: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/020

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Alternatives

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Terminal - Alternatives

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What others think

The same in python (faster): http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577848-set-executable-mode-where-needed-directories-elf-f/

Comment by keymon 91 weeks and 6 days ago

aka chmod -R +X

Comment by bashrc 91 weeks and 6 days ago

Not, chmod -R +X only works for directories or files that already have a execution bit set:

cp /bin/bash . chmod -x bash chmod +X bash ls -l

total 796

-rw-r--r-- 1 hrivas hrivas 811156 Aug 18 13:46 bash

From chmod(1) manual:

"execute/search only if the file is a directory or already has execute permission for some user (X)"

Comment by keymon 91 weeks and 6 days ago

What about scripts, like Sh, Bash, Perl, Python, etc?

Comment by kaedenn 91 weeks and 6 days ago

Also, why the 3

Comment by kaedenn 91 weeks and 6 days ago

Also, why the 3[less than] and a subshell? Wouldn't a pipe work here?

Comment by kaedenn 91 weeks and 6 days ago

For scripts the "file" command returns this:

something: a /bin/env bash script, ASCII text executable

So it works.

I only used the 3< you can request input in the middle, you are not changing the normal input. You can remove it:

while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' file; do file "$file" | egrep -q 'executable|ELF' && echo chmod +x "$file"; done < <(find . -type f -print0)

Or even:

for file in $(find . -type f); do file "$file" | egrep -q 'executable|ELF' && echo chmod +x "$file"; done
Comment by keymon 91 weeks and 6 days ago

Your point of view

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