Permissions

The array of checkboxes is used to set/unset specific permissions. The Owner row defines permissions for owner of the file. The Group row defines permissions for members of file group. The Others row defines permissions for all others. The label R stands for “read permissions”, W for “write” and X for “execute”. For directories the “execute permission” means permission to enter the directory (make it working directory).

There are three special permissions. Set UID and Set GID are used with executable files. They grant the user, who execute the file, permissions of file owner or group, respectively. Sticky bit for executable files makes the kernel keep the memory image of the process after it has terminated, in order to avoid the overhead of reloading it when it is re-invoked. Sticky bit for directories ensures that only the owner of a file can remove or delete the file or directory.

Note that while non-Unix systems are usually able to map the 9 simple Unix-style permissions to their own style, they probably won’t be able to handle the 3 special permissions.

Also not all Unix SFTP servers are able to set the special permissions.

When explicitly changing permissions of existing remote files, the checkboxes can be set to undefined state. It means that the particular permissions should be left to its current state. This is useful when you was to change one particular permissions for set of files/directories that have different permissions.

Note that this will not work fully for SCP protocol for files in subdirectories.

The Octal box shows octal number representation of the permissions set by the above checkboxes. You can enter the octal format directly instead of manually ticking the checkboxes. If you enter only three numbers, the leading zero for unset special permissions is added automatically. When any of the checkboxes are in undefined state the Octal box is empty.

Note that if permissions box pops up from an edit box, you can enter permissions in octal format directly into the edit box, without having to pop it up.

The Add X to directories checkbox makes WinSCP add “execute” permission to directories for every permission group (owner/group/others) where there is a “read” permission set already.

On Properties dialog the option is available only when there is at least one directory selected. Also it will not work for SCP protocol for subdirectories of selected directories.

The checkbox is disabled, if you check “execute” permissions explicitly for all permission groups, as it makes it effectively useless.