Interview Question for Software Engineer at Apple:

chmod -r 777 file/path/here

actually, the correct answer is

chmod -R 766 filename

For crying out loud, people, check your answers:

chmod -R 666 [pathname]

where:

chmod is the command

-R is the flag for recursive

666 is the octal permission for read+write for user/group/other

[pathname] is the item to apply the permission changes to. It should be a directory (not a file) as the recursive option has no meaning on a simple file.

A "7" adds execute permission, which is not what was stated.

Be careful - chmod -R 666 will remove the execute bit from directories below the one you're in. That will mean that for example the directory listing command will fail.

As stated, the question doesn't ask you to avoid ruining your directory permissions - but it does ask "how you would do it".

I use this, which makes sure to only change the permissions of files:

find . -type f -exec chmod 0666 \{} \;

As Sarah commented, you don't want to remove execute permissions from directories, just add read and write for all users. The other way to do this without using the 'find' program is:

chmod -R a+rw /path