Difference between using chmod a x and chmod 755

Question

This may sound silly  but I have a file  script that need to run and in order to do it I must change it to become executable  I would want to use either chmod a x or chmod 755  But is there a difference between using chmod a x and chmod 755

User · Answer

Indeed there is   chmod a x is relative to the current state and just sets the x flag  So a 640 file becomes 751  or 750    a 644 file becomes 755   chmod 755  however  sets the mask as written  rwxr-xr-x  no matter how it was before  It is equivalent to chmod u rwx go rx

User · Answer

chmod a x modifies the argument s mode while chmod 755 sets it  Try both variants on something that has full or no permissions and you will notice the difference

User · Answer

Yes - different  chmod a x will add the exec bits to the file but will not touch other bits  For example file might be still unreadable to others and group   chmod 755 will always make the file with perms 755 no matter what initial permissions were   This may or may not matter for your script

[linux] Difference between using "chmod a+x" and "chmod 755"

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