What does the permission string lrwxrwxrw mean?












2














when I cd to / and enter the command:



ls -lstr


For some files/folders it gives output like



0 lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root   root         7 Jan 30  2018 bin -> usr/bin


So what actually is this lrwxrwxrwx?










share|improve this question









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idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1




    Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
    – Kulfy
    1 hour ago
















2














when I cd to / and enter the command:



ls -lstr


For some files/folders it gives output like



0 lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root   root         7 Jan 30  2018 bin -> usr/bin


So what actually is this lrwxrwxrwx?










share|improve this question









New contributor




idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1




    Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
    – Kulfy
    1 hour ago














2












2








2







when I cd to / and enter the command:



ls -lstr


For some files/folders it gives output like



0 lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root   root         7 Jan 30  2018 bin -> usr/bin


So what actually is this lrwxrwxrwx?










share|improve this question









New contributor




idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











when I cd to / and enter the command:



ls -lstr


For some files/folders it gives output like



0 lrwxrwxrwx.   1 root   root         7 Jan 30  2018 bin -> usr/bin


So what actually is this lrwxrwxrwx?







permissions






share|improve this question









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idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 1 hour ago









Zanna

50.1k13131240




50.1k13131240






New contributor




idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 1 hour ago









idaljeetsingh

113




113




New contributor




idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






idaljeetsingh is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 1




    Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
    – Kulfy
    1 hour ago














  • 1




    Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
    – Kulfy
    1 hour ago








1




1




Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
– Kulfy
1 hour ago




Possible duplicate of How do you view file permissions?
– Kulfy
1 hour ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















5














The leading l indicates that this file is a symlink, in contrast to - which indicates a regular file, d which indicates a directory, and other less common prefixes.



A symlink is type of file which only contains a link to another file. Reading a symlink reads the real file. Writing to a symlink writes to the real file. cding to a symlink that is to a directory results in behaviour almost identical to what would happen if you had cd'd into the real directory.



The permission bits are displayed as rwxrwxrwx. All symlinks show these bits, but they are "dummy permissions". The actual permissions of a symlink are the permissions of the real file it links to. You can get the real permissions (and file type) by running stat on the symlink, for example:



$ stat -Lc '%a %A' /initrd.img
644 -rw-r--r--




  • stat read file metadata


  • -L dereference (follow) symlinks


  • -c select output according to specified string


  • %a octal permissions


  • %A "human readable" permissions






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
    – wjandrea
    16 mins ago








  • 1




    @wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
    – Zanna
    13 mins ago











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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









5














The leading l indicates that this file is a symlink, in contrast to - which indicates a regular file, d which indicates a directory, and other less common prefixes.



A symlink is type of file which only contains a link to another file. Reading a symlink reads the real file. Writing to a symlink writes to the real file. cding to a symlink that is to a directory results in behaviour almost identical to what would happen if you had cd'd into the real directory.



The permission bits are displayed as rwxrwxrwx. All symlinks show these bits, but they are "dummy permissions". The actual permissions of a symlink are the permissions of the real file it links to. You can get the real permissions (and file type) by running stat on the symlink, for example:



$ stat -Lc '%a %A' /initrd.img
644 -rw-r--r--




  • stat read file metadata


  • -L dereference (follow) symlinks


  • -c select output according to specified string


  • %a octal permissions


  • %A "human readable" permissions






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
    – wjandrea
    16 mins ago








  • 1




    @wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
    – Zanna
    13 mins ago
















5














The leading l indicates that this file is a symlink, in contrast to - which indicates a regular file, d which indicates a directory, and other less common prefixes.



A symlink is type of file which only contains a link to another file. Reading a symlink reads the real file. Writing to a symlink writes to the real file. cding to a symlink that is to a directory results in behaviour almost identical to what would happen if you had cd'd into the real directory.



The permission bits are displayed as rwxrwxrwx. All symlinks show these bits, but they are "dummy permissions". The actual permissions of a symlink are the permissions of the real file it links to. You can get the real permissions (and file type) by running stat on the symlink, for example:



$ stat -Lc '%a %A' /initrd.img
644 -rw-r--r--




  • stat read file metadata


  • -L dereference (follow) symlinks


  • -c select output according to specified string


  • %a octal permissions


  • %A "human readable" permissions






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
    – wjandrea
    16 mins ago








  • 1




    @wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
    – Zanna
    13 mins ago














5












5








5






The leading l indicates that this file is a symlink, in contrast to - which indicates a regular file, d which indicates a directory, and other less common prefixes.



A symlink is type of file which only contains a link to another file. Reading a symlink reads the real file. Writing to a symlink writes to the real file. cding to a symlink that is to a directory results in behaviour almost identical to what would happen if you had cd'd into the real directory.



The permission bits are displayed as rwxrwxrwx. All symlinks show these bits, but they are "dummy permissions". The actual permissions of a symlink are the permissions of the real file it links to. You can get the real permissions (and file type) by running stat on the symlink, for example:



$ stat -Lc '%a %A' /initrd.img
644 -rw-r--r--




  • stat read file metadata


  • -L dereference (follow) symlinks


  • -c select output according to specified string


  • %a octal permissions


  • %A "human readable" permissions






share|improve this answer














The leading l indicates that this file is a symlink, in contrast to - which indicates a regular file, d which indicates a directory, and other less common prefixes.



A symlink is type of file which only contains a link to another file. Reading a symlink reads the real file. Writing to a symlink writes to the real file. cding to a symlink that is to a directory results in behaviour almost identical to what would happen if you had cd'd into the real directory.



The permission bits are displayed as rwxrwxrwx. All symlinks show these bits, but they are "dummy permissions". The actual permissions of a symlink are the permissions of the real file it links to. You can get the real permissions (and file type) by running stat on the symlink, for example:



$ stat -Lc '%a %A' /initrd.img
644 -rw-r--r--




  • stat read file metadata


  • -L dereference (follow) symlinks


  • -c select output according to specified string


  • %a octal permissions


  • %A "human readable" permissions







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 14 mins ago

























answered 1 hour ago









Zanna

50.1k13131240




50.1k13131240








  • 1




    No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
    – wjandrea
    16 mins ago








  • 1




    @wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
    – Zanna
    13 mins ago














  • 1




    No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
    – wjandrea
    16 mins ago








  • 1




    @wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
    – Zanna
    13 mins ago








1




1




No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
– wjandrea
16 mins ago






No need to use readlink, just use option -L to dereference symlinks. You can do stat -L or ls -L.
– wjandrea
16 mins ago






1




1




@wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
– Zanna
13 mins ago




@wjandrea awesome! thanks :D I edited
– Zanna
13 mins ago










idaljeetsingh is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










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