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If you are used to working with permissions on files in the Terminal window in the standard Unix-style, then the default method for setting permissions in Nautilus may not be comfortable for you.

Open the Nautilus File Browser by selecting a location from the Places menu.

Opening a folder in the Nautilus File Browser

Right-click on a file and select Properties from the popup menu.

Getting properties for a file

Click the Permissions tab. Notice that you set permissions using drop-down lists instead of using the standard Unix-style method of setting the permissions. There is also a special Execute check box for the file in general instead of separate check boxes to set the Execute permissions for the Owner, Group, and Others separately.

The Nautilus Permissions tab default style

You can change this to check boxes for read, write, and execute and the selected permissions will also display in the Unix-style format. To do this, press Alt + F2 to open the Run Application window. Enter “gconf-editor” (without the quotes) in the edit box. Click Run.

Entering gconf-editor on the Run Application dialog box

Navigate to apps | nautilus | preferences in the tree on the left side of the Configuration Editor dialog box. Scroll down in the list on the right until you find show_advanced_permissions. Select the check box such that it contains a check mark.

Turning on the show_advanced_permissions setting

To close the Configuration Editor, select Quit from the File menu.

Closing the Configuration Editor

Now, when you get the properties for a file in Nautilus and click the Permissions tab, the options match up more closely with the standard, Unix-style of setting permissions. There is even a Text view showing how the permissions would display if you got a full directory listing (ls –l) in a Terminal window.

Nautilus permissoins tab in Unix-style

The default method may seem simple, but it you have been working with file permissions in the Terminal window for a long time, it may be more confusing. This tweak should make it easier for you to work with permissions in Nautilus.

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