Copy permissions to identical tree on linux / unix

i have a tree of files with correct permission. then i have a (filewise) identical tree (with different file contents tough) with wrong permissions.

how can i transfer the permissions layout from one tree to another?

From serverfault yawniek

• If you have the source and dest, you can synchronize your permissions with rsync -ar --perms source/ dest

  It will not transfer the data, just permissions...

  yawniek : nope, it will copy files if timestamps differ
  From Dom

• One thing you could do is use the find command to build a script with the commands you need to copy the permissions. Here is a quick example, you could do a lot more with the various printf options, including get the owner, group id, and so on.

  $ find /var/log -type d -printf "chmod %m %p \n" > reset_perms
  $ cat reset_perms
  chmod 755 /var/log
  chmod 755 /var/log/apt
  chmod 750 /var/log/apache2
  chmod 755 /var/log/fsck
  chmod 755 /var/log/gdm
  chmod 755 /var/log/cups
  chmod 2750 /var/log/exim4
  ...
  

  David : I suspect the -printf argument to find is a GNU extension? HP-UX find doesn't have it.

  mpez0 : Even without the printf option to find, one can use the ls option (or, at worst, pipe to xargs ls -l) and save in a file. A minute or two of search and replace, and one will have a script with chmod for each file.
  From Zoredache

• It can be done with the following shell line:

  D1=foo; D2=foo2; for entry in $(find $D1  -exec stat -f "%N:%Mp%Lp" {} \;); do $(echo $entry | sed 's#'$D1'#'$D2'#' | awk -F: '{printf ("chmod %s %s\n", $2, $1)}') ; done
  

  simply set the right value for D1 and D2 variables, point them to the source and destination directories, run and the dirs will have permissions in sync.

  Thomas : Find, sed and awk in one line. I love that (I do it too).

  yawniek : bit long but perfect! note: foo should be $D1

  David : This assumes that stat is present. I've found, regrettably, that the command stat is often not present.

  AlberT : @nemtester sure, corrected thanks :)

  AlberT : @David, I don't know of such a system lacking of stat. But it is quite trivial to use the following "octal ls" version and accommodate the given solution accordingly: alias ols="ls -la | awk '{k=0;for(i=0;i<=8;i++)k+=((substr(\$1,i+2,1)~/[rwx]/)*2^(8-i));if(k)printf(\" %0o \",k);print}'"
  From AlberT

• Two ways:

  1. If it works on your brand of UNIX: cp -ax /src /dest
  2. Or if not, this is the portable version: (cd /src && tar cpf - .) | (cd /dst && tar xpf -)

  (in the latter case /dst must exist)

  Edit: sorry, I misread. Not what you asked.

  theotherreceive : It's worth mentioning that -a (for archive) is a GNU addition to cp, I've never seen it on any other system. It's just short for -dpR (no de-reference, recursive, preserve permissions). The R and p options should be in any version of cp
  From Thomas

• I think I'd write a perl script to do it. Something like:

  #!/usr/bin/perl -nw
  
  my $dir = $_;
  my $mode = stat($dir)[2];
  my $pathfix = "/some/path/to/fix/";
  chmod $mode, $pathfix . $dir;
  

  Then do something like this:

  cd /some/old/orig/path/ ; find . -type d | perlscript
  

  I wrote this off the top of my head, and it has not been tested; so check it before you let it run rampant. This only fixes permissions on directories that exist; it won't change permissions on files, nor will it create missing directories.

  From David

• I just learned a new and simple way to accomplish this:

  getfacl -R /path/to/source > /root/perms.ac
  

  This will generate a list with all permissions and ownerships.

  Then go to one level above the destination and restore the permissions with

  setfacl --restore=/root/perms.acl
  

  The reason you have to be one level above is that all paths in perms.acl are relative.

  Should be done as root.

  From marlar