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leeand00
Asked: 2015-03-10 12:47:36 +0800 CST

Is there a way to backup and restore basic file / folder permissions on Ubuntu the way that there is using icacls in Windows?

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In Windows you can do this (backup and restore basic file permissions) can this be done in Linux?

And to clarify, by basic file permissions I don't mean ACLs in Linux, I mean the default permissions modified with chmod / chown.

permissions

2 Answers

  1. Yes, using the stat command (See man stat, man find, man xargs), but why would it be needed? In normal Linux life, wholesale permission changes/restores are rarely needed. 

    sudo find / \(-type f -o -type d \) -print0 | \  
    xargs -0 stat <stat parameters>
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  2. If you have the space, just tar up your test directory. If you need to revert things, delete the test files, and extract your archive to get back to what you started with. tar preserves ownership and permissions by default.

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