Overview

Linux chmod has a few options that can make your life a lot easier when managing a shared storage.
The most needed are chmod suid sgid sticky bit.
Also the impact of each one is different between files and folders.

SetUID and SetGID

SUID (SetUID) and SGID (SetGID) has different affects when used on files or on folders.

suid and sgid on files

When suid is set on an executable that means the file will run with the owner user permissions when run by a different user.
When used you will have the letter ‘S’ specified in the files permissions.
When you will have a lower-case ‘s’ that means it hides the permission ‘x’ of user so it means ‘t+x”

Apply SUID on ‘run.sh’:

chmod u+s run.sh

Apply SUID with 777:

chmod 4777 run.sh

Output SUID with 777:

-rwsrwxrwx.

Output SUID with 677:

drwSrwxrwx.

When sgid is set on an executable that means the file will run with the owner groups permissions when run by a different user.
When used you will have the letter ‘S’ specified in the files permissions.
When you will have a lower-case ‘s’ that means it hides the permission ‘x’ of group so it means ‘t+x”

Apply SGID on ‘run.sh’:

chmod g+s run.sh

Apply SGID with 777:

chmod 2777 run.sh

Output SGID with 777:

-rwxrwsrwx.

Output SGID with 767:

drwxrwSrwx.

suid and sgid on folders

suid and sgid on folders means inherit permissions for newly created files.
sgid will set the owner group permission of all new files the same as folders owner group.
Linux ignores the suid permission on folders.

Sticky-Bit

“When the sticky bit is set, only the item’s owner, the directory’s owner, or the superuser can rename or delete files.” (Wikipedia)

Sticky_bit is mostly applied to folders, it has a few uses on files but that not in the scope of this tutorial.

When used you will have the letter ‘T’ specified in the folders permissions.
When you will have a lower-case ‘t’ that means it hides the permission ‘x’ of others so it means ‘t+x”

Output sticky bit with 777: