chriswelker [dot] net

Sometimes when I have to copy data to another machine it won’t let me access some of the files. There are two commands I try to get around this issue.

Of course you could check the man pages for chown or chmod but I will show you how I use them with my limited needs.

I will start with chown. I use this command to change the owner from what the files might think the former owner is, or is some case from who the owner actually was to me, or the new user. Here is how I do it.

Start by opening Terminal which is located in Applications > Utilities > Terminal, then use the following commands.

sudo chown -Rv user /filename/*

Here I use sudo to make sure I am running as the super user for this command, the -R (NOTE: the capital is important) is to make sure its recursive (meaning it will apply to child folders and files) and the -v is for verbose so that it will output what files the command is currently working on. I like verbose so that I know its still going and I can easily tell when its done. user refers to the user I want the ownership to pass to. /filename/* is the location of the file, on my Mac if I need to run the permission change on my music files I would use the short name of my account like:/Users/cwelker/Music/* I use the * out of habit to make sure it is going though the whole folder, which is what -r is doing as well, but it will not matter to have running both.

The other command I want to look at, I really only use when I am working with web design or installing some websites. I really only use this one way, and it opens the files wide open. I use this only when I need to, normally I can use my FTP programs to do the same thing, but either way here it is.

sudo chmod -rv 777 /filename/*

Some parts of this command will look familiar. The main difference is going to be that instead of one user you are modifying the files permissions for groups. The numbers refer to the user groups and what they can do with them. A better explination and a calculator of what the numbers can do can be found here

Comments and questions are always welcome and let me know if I can write something for you.

Where is my life going? See I don’t really know, right now I am along for the ride. I know what I would like. I would like to raise a God-fearing family, but more then that I want to impact the world, not necessarily on a huge scale, not even to the point where people may remember my name. What I do want them to remember is what I was able to do for them, or how I cared about them. At the end of the day, I can figure out how to get what I need, but some of what I need is to be able to help someone.

I am blessed because that is something that I get to do daily because of my work. I get to help people help students whose lives will change the world, and the people they encounter. I am not the kind of person who wants to get up and talk in front of thousands of people. I could write what the person is going to say to them or walk though the process with them before they stand up there. Even more likely I will be an instrument in how they can actually reach everyone. At the end of the day I know what I do matters to someone, and yet I may never have to interact with that someone.

I love to work with people and at the same time I love to do work for people that they may never notice and I am ok with that. I can’t tell you why that is something that I take joy in, maybe I saw too much of the “Look what I am doing for you” or something.

I have dreams of becoming a world class photographer, a published writer, and would love to produce music, I don’t care if anyone remembers who I am, but if they are entertained by my writing, or are soothed by a photo they have placed where they need it, or if they are in love with the music they are listening to, it would be incredible to be a part of it, and at the same time walk up to them, and have them never realize I was responsible for that art, or what ever it is that is in their life.

God has and will continue to place me where I will be most effective for His will, I just need to be open to hearing His call and allow for myself not to get in the way of the end product.