[chmod] Permissions
change permissions on all dirs
find . -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;
change permissions on all files
find . -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;
change permissions recursively
use the -R flag
chmod 755 -R var/
make executable
chmod +x file
copy permissions from another file
On GNU/Linux chown and chmod have a --reference option
chown --reference=otherfile thisfile
chmod --reference=otherfile thisfile
Example from Magento
Enter the following commands to set permissions:
find . -type f -exec chmod 400 {} \;
find . -type d -exec chmod 500 {} \;
find var/ -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;
find media/ -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;
find var/ -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;
find media/ -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;