Equivalent of chmod to change file permissions in Windows

Is there any Windows equivalent of Linux's chmod to change the permissions of a file?

Solution 1:

Greg mentions attrib - but attrib isn't anywhere close to chmod - attrib can set Read-only/Hidden attributes of a single file - it doesn't provide fine-grained controls like icacls does.

icacls sets/resets the access control lists, so you can grant/deny rights for individual SIDs & groups. It is fairly complicated though.

Here's an example I have saved in my github gist; it resets the ownership and access control list for all files in a folder and is particularly useful to fix those annoying "You need permissions from .. to perform this action" especially when moving files over from a previous install:

icacls * /reset /t /c /q 

Reset replaces the existing one with the default list.
/t acts recursively on all files, folders & subfolders
/q doesn't display any success messages
/c continues with remaining files even in an error occurs.

You can also do things like backup the existing ACLs & apply them across all. Have a look at ss64 which explains the different options & switches very well.

Solution 2:

Either cacls, xcacls, or my personal favourite icacls will probably do what you need.

Solution 3:

There (sadly) can't be an exact equivalent, since Linux und DOS/Windows use attributes for different purposes, and (as Chathuranga said before) the security model is different:

• In Windows file systems, there are "hidden" (H) and "system" (S) attributes which don't have an equivalent in Linux; there, files are hidden by prepending the name with a dot (.).
• There is no equivalent to the Windows "archive" (A) attribute, either.
• There is no equivalent to the "executable" (x) Linux attributes in the DOS/Windows file attributes.
• There is an equivalent to the Windows "directory" (D) attribute (but it can't be changed anyway).
• In Linux file systems, every entry is owned by exactly one user and exactly one group, and read/write/execution can be allowed for each of them, and for others. ACLs (like used by Windows) are even more flexible, but more complicated as well, and the commandline syntax is a PITA (in my humble opinion, of course)

The DOS file attribute R (read-only) is the one which might be considered to have an equivalent: this attribute set is roughly like the w attribute for all being missing; but the permission to change this attribute is subject to ACLs.

It might be cool to have a chmod/chown equivalent on Windows, perhaps written in some scripting language, which in turn calls attrib and cacls (or successors), but I don't have one.

Solution 4:

icacls "C:\folder" /grant:r "Domain\Users":(OI)(CI)M /T /C

Works like a charm to change permissions on a folder for domain users. Additional information regarding cacls and icacls.

• wikipedia - cacls & icacls
• Microsoft technet

Solution 5:

The attrib command is the closest match for very basic things (read-only, archive flags). Then there is The ACL (access control list) command cacls. Last but not least, since Windows is actually Posix compliant, the unix-like flags do exist. If you install the Cygwin tool set, you will get a chmod. (A little off-topic, since you are looking for an equivalent of a unix command, downloading and installing Cgygwin might be something interesting for you.)