Making executable files in linux

How to Make a File Executable in Linux terminal?

New to Linux command line and wondering how to make a bash script or some other file executable? Here’s how to do it.

Each file that is in a POSIX-compatible file system (Ext4, Btrfs, XFS, JFS etc) has «mode bits» assigned to itself.

To make a file executable in Linux, the executable mode bit needs to be enabled.

To set the executable mode bit, the chmod command is used like this:

With that, you can execute said file from the terminal:

That was the quick summary. Let’s see things a bit in detail.

Make a file executable in Linux

There are several ways you can make a file executable in Linux. The most common methods involve using the chmod command, in different ways.

To check if you can execute a file, use the -l flag with ls command.

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

In the first column, -rw-r—r— represents that the owner can read and write, users from the group can only read and everyone else can only read the file.

Note the lack of x from the permission symbols. This means that lhb.txt is not executable.

I highly recommend reading about Linux file permissions and brushing up your basics to better understand these commands.

Method 1: Make file executable for everyone

The first method, and the most straightforward one, is to make a file executable using the following command:

The x flag is to set or unset the executable permission of a file. And using + sign before x means we want to set it as an executable file.

This will make the file executable for the owner, group and everyone else. Anyone on the system, will be able to execute it as well.

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod +x lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

As you can see now, everyone, the owner, group and others have the executable x bit set. This means everyone can execute this file now.

Method 2: Make file executable only for certain user or group

If you do not want to make everyone able to execute a file, you should specify classes before adding/removing file permissions.

The available classes are:

• u : permissions for owner/user
• g : permissions for group
• o : permissions for others
• a : permissions for everyone

When you specify a class, the syntax is mostly similar to the one you saw in the first method.

This means, if I want to make the file executable in a manner such that only the owner of the file can execute it, and no one else, then I should use the following command:

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod u+x lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rwxr--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

Similarly, to make it executable for everyone in the group owning that file, I should use the following command:

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod g+x lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r-xr-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

When you specify the a class, it is almost as if you did not specify any. Let’s have a look.

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod +x lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod 644 lhb.txt #reset permissions $ chmod a+x lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rwxr-xr-x 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

These commands might appear differently, but they have the same outcome.

Method 3: Use the octal numbers

If you follow the first method, you only enable the executable flag of a file by doing a +x , making it such that anyone can execute it.

But, sometimes you might not want everyone to execute a file, maybe it should need some privileges. In that case, you can specify the full set of permissions.

That is usually done by either providing an octal value or a symbolic value to enable file permissions.

This allows you to have a more granular control over how the flags are set. Below is the syntax for using octal values with chmod command:

If you are not good with numbers, you can use an online chmod calculator, which helps you generate correct octal values and thus avoid using the wrong value and messing up file permissions.

Say, I want to make the file executable only for the owner and group, I need to know its current permissions first, and add the executable bits to it on top of it using [chmod-calculator].

$ ls -l lhb.txt -rw-r--r-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt $ chmod 754 lhb.txt $ ls -l lhb.txt -rwxr-xr-- 1 pratham staff 0 Mar 10 20:49 lhb.txt

As you can see, only the owner and group can execute the file.

Conclusion

This article covers making a file executable in a Linux system. It mainly focused on the different ways to use the chmod command. If you want to know more about it, we have a few examples on how to use the chmod command.

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How To Make A File Executable In Linux

If you’re someone with a background in a Windows operating system, chances are you’re aware of the “.exe” files. These files are referred to as executable files because their purpose is to execute a series of commands that make up the whole program.

However, when you make the change to a Linux distribution, this division of executable vs. non-executable does not apply. Any file can be made executable in Linux since it does not require a certain extension to be declared as an executable.

This provides a lot of flexibility when it comes to file management.

If you’re someone looking to learn how to make a file executable in Linux, then this guide is meant for you. We’ll provide a step-by-step solution on how you can make any file executable, either using the CLI or the GUI method.

Let’s take a look at the steps.

Method 1: Using The Command Terminal

The first method makes use of the Command Terminal. You can make any file executable by typing certain commands in the Terminal.

Although we’re going to be using Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in this guide, the steps shouldn’t be any different for other Linux distributions. With that said, just follow the steps explained with the help of an example.

First and foremost, open the Command Terminal on your system. The shortcut for Ubuntu is Ctrl + Alt + T.

For this guide, we’ll create a sample file using the echo command by using the following command:

This command will create a string literal with the text “This is a guide on how to make a file executable in Linux” and store it in a file called Test1.

To view the content of the file, type the following command:

You should notice that the file doesn’t end with an extension name. This means that you have the option to make the file executable.

In order to make Test1 an executable file, we’ll use the following command:

In case of a file extension, the command becomes:

Now you can call your file by typing its name in the Terminal as follow:

You can also execute the command in the following manner:

This will provide appropriate permission for the file to be executed.

If the CLI method seems complicated to you, worry not as you can achieve the same results with the help of the GUI.

Method 2: Using the GUI

Unlike the CLI method, the GUI method is much less daunting and simplified to understand what’s going on.

Follow these steps to make a file executable using the GUI.

Start by navigating to the file of your choice. Once you’ve navigated to the file, right-click on it and select “Properties”. A new window should appear.

Once a window opens, click on the Permissions tab.

In the Permissions tab, you should see an option titled “Allow executing file as program.”

You should now have the desired file in an executable format if you followed the steps correctly.

Understanding How File Execution Works

Learning how file execution works in Linux has its benefits as it provides more flexibility when it comes to an understanding of how the file works.

In Method 1, we used the command chmod +x. This was necessary in order to make the file executable since the file required “read” privileges. The “./” tells the Terminal to search for the location of the file.

Aside from Method 1, there are other ways to use the $ chmod command. This flexibility makes $ chmod extremely valuable. A list of options for the $ chmod command is given below:

• $ chmod 775 . This mode allows anyone to execute the file. However, only the owner of the file has permission to write in that file.
• $ chmod 0010 . Only users of a group will be allowed to execute the file.
• $ chmod 0100 . Permission to execute the file belongs exclusively to the user.
• $ chmod 777 . Provides permission to execute the file to all Linux users.
• $ chmod -777 . Doesn’t allow any user to execute the file.

Additional Information

Although the $ chmod command works for files without extension type, it should be noted that you’ll need to specify the file type in case it’s mentioned. For example, if you are dealing with a file that has a .run or .bin extension. The syntax for the execution command would be:

Additionally, make sure you have the correct name, file type, and file location before making any file executable.

Conclusion

If you followed the steps in the guide correctly, then the good news is you are now aware of how to make a file executable in Linux.

This guide covered different methods to make the file executable in Linux. We started by explaining the method involving the Command Terminal and followed up with the method to achieve the same with the help of the Graphical User Interface(GUI). We also covered additional uses of the $chmod command and the different permissions.

With this, we wish you all the best in your journey to master Linux.

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How to Make a File Executable in Linux

Making bash script files executable is an efficient way to run your bash programs because by default the scripts are not executable. This is useful mainly for system administrators, as they need to develop several bash scripts daily to automate their tasks. For example, you might wish to run bash scripts to back up your work or log certain events on your server. So this article will guide you on how you can make your bash scripts executable, and for that, there are two main ways:

• Make a bash file executable using the CHMOD command
• Make a bash file executable using file properties

How to make a file executable using the chmod command

The “chmod” command stands for change mode, and this command can be used to make changes in the file permissions, such as you can make a file writable, readable, and executable. To see these permissions for any file, first, let’s create a bash script file in nano editor:

Then we have written some text and saved the file as shown below:

echo ”This is a test file to make it executable.”

Use the below-mentioned command to check whether the file is executable or not:

In the above image, the letter ‘r’ shows that the file is readable, and ‘w’ shows that the file is writeable and ‘x’ shows that the file is executable, which is currently missing on the above output, and that means you cannot execute this file for now. To verify this, you can execute this file by following the general syntax shown below.

As you can see, it shows an error after trying to execute the text file, and this is where the chmod command comes in handy. To make this file executable, all you need to do is to follow the general syntax shown below:

In the above image, ‘u+x’ shows that you are giving permission to the user to execute a specific file, and you can see that it added a letter ‘x’ in the image and after that, you need to run this bash file by typing.

It can be seen that the content of the bash file is now executed without any error.

How to make a file executable using file properties

You can also make a file executable by right-clicking on the bash file and selecting its ‘Properties’ as shown below:

The next step is to select the ‘Permissions’ tab and then check the option of ‘Allow executing file as program’.

This will also allow you to execute the bash file for which you have selected this option, upon double clicking the file, you will get the prompt as shown below:

You can either get output in the terminal or directly run the script for the desired result.

Conclusion

Making a bash script executable allows you to execute your bash scripts without having to type bash in the terminal. This is especially useful for system administrators, who need to write several bash scripts every day to automate their jobs. So in this article, we have taught you how you can make any bash file executable, and there are two ways for doing this. One is by using the “chmod” command, and the other is by using the file properties.

About the author

Taimoor Mohsin

Hi there! I’m an avid writer who loves to help others in finding solutions by writing high-quality content about technology and gaming. In my spare time, I enjoy reading books and watching movies.

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