---
title: "Recursively fixing file and directory permissions"
kind: article
slug: recursively-fixing-file-and-directory-permissions
created_at: 2011-12-13
tags:
  - Linux
  - BASH
  - git
  - sh
  - file permissions
---
While working on a [Gitlab][1] installation I noticed that all repository file permissions were off. Fixing recursive file and directory permissions can be quite hard. Or so I thought.

Using the following commands (in plain Bash) allow you to recursively set permissions for files and directories. So, to fix the proper read permissions on your Gitlab repositories you can use this:

    # Go to your git repositories directory (as git or the gitlab user)
    cd /home/git/repositories

    # Fix ownership
    sudo chown -R git:git *

    # Fix directory permissions
    sudo find -type d -exec chmod 770 {} \;

    # Fix file permissions
    sudo find -type f -exec chmod 660 {} \;

After this, your Gitlab should have no trouble accessing your code (e.g. in the tree browser).

[1]: http://gitlabhq.com/