Recursive chmod / Permission Change Across Directories for a File Type

This guide provides the commands for recursively changing file and directory permissions across a hosting account. Useful for fixing permission issues after migrations, restores, or mass file uploads.

# Directories: 755, Files: 644
find /home/username/public_html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /home/username/public_html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

01. Standard Web Hosting Permissions

• Directories: 755 (owner rwx, group rx, world rx)
• Files: 644 (owner rw, group r, world r)
• CGI/Perl scripts: 755 (must be executable)
• Config files with passwords: 600 or 640
• WordPress wp-config.php: 600 or 640

02. Recursive chmod Commands

Set All Directories to 755

find /home/username/public_html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Set All Files to 644

find /home/username/public_html -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Both at Once

find /home/username/public_html -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \; -o -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Faster Alternative with xargs

find /home/username/public_html -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 755
find /home/username/public_html -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chmod 644

03. Using find for Granular Control

Change Only PHP Files

find /home/username/public_html -name "*.php" -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Make CGI Scripts Executable

find /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin -name "*.cgi" -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin -name "*.pl" -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Secure Config Files

find /home/username/public_html -name "wp-config.php" -exec chmod 640 {} \;
find /home/username/public_html -name "configuration.php" -exec chmod 640 {} \;
find /home/username/public_html -name ".htaccess" -exec chmod 644 {} \;

04. Fixing Ownership

After a restore or migration, files may be owned by the wrong user:

# Fix ownership for the entire account
chown -R username:username /home/username/public_html/

# Fix ownership for a specific addon domain
chown -R username:username /home/username/addondomain.com/

/scripts/fixperms username

Quick Recap

1. Directories: 755 via find -type d -exec chmod 755
2. Files: 644 via find -type f -exec chmod 644
3. Never 777 on shared hosting
4. Fix ownership: chown -R username:username
5. Or use: /scripts/fixperms username

5,186 users found this article useful · Last updated March 2026 · Browse all Server Maintenance articles