dcd9fedd-5509-4f32-8754-e48177608f7d/docs/11_permissions_task.md

Step 11 — Permissions Challenge (Validation Task)

Goal: Configure secure permissions for a small project so only the owner can read “secret” files, while a public folder stays readable by others. Type: Task with validator (solution is not in this doc). Use the helper if you’re stuck.

Scenario

Your team stores notes in a project called secure-project. You must:

• Create the directories and files
• Apply correct permissions so secrets are private and public readme is world‑readable
• Run the validator to confirm

Requirements

1. Create folders (under your home practice area):

   • ~/playground/secure-project/secrets
   • ~/playground/secure-project/public

2. Create files with exact contents:

   • ~/playground/secure-project/secrets/plan.txt containing: TOP SECRET
   • ~/playground/secure-project/public/readme.txt containing: Welcome to the project

3. Set permissions exactly:

   • Directory secrets: 700
   • File secrets/plan.txt: 600
   • Directory public: 755
   • File public/readme.txt: 644

4. Optional (nice to have, not required for pass):

   • Show octal + owner/group using: stat -c "%A %a %U %G %n" <path>

Hints (partial)

• Create folders: mkdir -p ...
• Create files: echo "TEXT" > file
• Set directory perms: chmod 700 DIR (owner rwx, others none)
• Set file perms: chmod 600 FILE (owner rw, others none)
• Public readable directory: chmod 755 DIR
• Public readable file: chmod 644 FILE

How to validate

From your terminal, run the validator:

bash validate/11_permissions_task.sh

If everything is correct, it will print PASS. Otherwise it prints a helpful FAIL message so you can adjust and re‑run.