LinuxConfig -

Here is a tip on how to backup file permissions in Linux using getfacl. This is very useful technique if you want to prevent someone or you to change file permissions of certain set of files or directories. By using a getfacl command we can take a snapshot of file permissions :

getfacl -R /var/www/myweb > permissions.acl

This will backup permissions of all files and directories within /var/www/myweb and myweb directory itself. -R ensures that the /var/www/myweb will be traversed recursively to include all files and directories.

Now, that we have set of permissions stored in a single file permissions.acl we can restore them by:

setfacl --restore=permissions.acl

Since file permissions.acl contains a full path to all files and directories within /var/www/myweb there is no need to specify where a path to where permissions should be restored.