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    Incidentally, the value for the "d" is 040000 - it can be found in header files under the name S_IFDIR. You don't use it when setting the file mode, but the stat() function actually returns the value 040750 for drwxr-x---. Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 18:07
  • To your final question, I'd answer with another question: why do some people use octal permissions (e.g. 0777) instead of the much more comprehensible (ugo)(+-)(rwx)? Is it just the geek equivalent of a jacked-up pickup? Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 18:31
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    @jamesqf Actually, now that I understand how the octal codes map, it's simpler for me to think about that way. Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 22:12
  • @jamesqf it's much faster to type, when you're specifying the full set of permissions, than e.g. u=rwx,g=rx,o= for 750. Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 22:23
  • @Random832: But at least for me, any saving in typing speed is more than outweighed by the time needed to mentally translate between numbers and permissions. The more so as I seldom if ever want to set all permissions: I simply want to set execute or r/w permission. So about 90% of my chmod calls are just "chmod u+x". Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 23:03