An interactive Unix file permissions and ownership TUI manager built in Rust with Ratatui and crossterm.

rwx simplifies inspect/audit operations on files and folders, enabling developers and administrators to quickly visualize permissions, toggle individual bits interactively, change owners/groups, and safely apply changes recursively.

• Interactive File Browser: Navigate directories, inspect file sizes, and select files or directories directly within the interface.
• Dual Permission Editors:
  • Permissions Grid (Checkboxes): Easily toggle Read (r), Write (w), and Execute (x) rights across Owner (u), Group (g), and Others (o).
  • Direct Octal Input: Type octal numbers directly (e.g., 0755, 4755, 1777) with real-time validation.
• Special Bits Support: Inspect and configure SetUID, SetGID, and Sticky bits.
• Ownership Management: Modify target owner and group names (using chown and chgrp under the hood) with live user/group existence validation.
• Recursive Mode: Toggle recursive changes to automatically apply the permissions and ownership to all files and directories nested under the target.
• Real-Time Previews: Instantly view the symbolic permission representation (e.g., drwxr-xr-x or -rwsr-xr-x) as you edit.
• Panic Resilience: Registers custom panic hooks to automatically restore your terminal state (raw mode, screen buffering) in case of unexpected errors.

You can install rwx using Homebrew via our custom tap:

brew install vncsmnl/tap/rwx

Install the pre-compiled binary via a shell script:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/vncsmnl/rwx/releases/latest/download/rwx-installer.sh | sh

Since rwx is published on crates.io, you can install it using Cargo:

cargo install rwx

If you have cargo-binstall installed, you can quickly download and install pre-compiled binaries directly:

cargo binstall rwx

If you want to compile rwx yourself:

• Rust and Cargo (2024 Edition) installed on your system.
• A Unix-like operating system (macOS, Linux, BSD) because the tool relies on Unix-specific features.

git clone https://github.com/vncsmnl/rwx.git
cd rwx
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/rwx /usr/local/bin/

Start rwx in the current directory:

rwx

Or open a specific file or directory directly in the Editor mode:

rwx /path/to/file_or_directory

rwx [FLAGS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]         Path to the file or directory to inspect/edit

Flags:
  -R, --recursive  Apply changes recursively (when target is a directory)
  -h, --help       Print help information
  -V, --version    Print version information

Use Browser Mode to navigate the file system and choose a file/directory to edit.

In Editor Mode, you modify permissions, ownership, and options.

• src/main.rs: Application entry point, CLI arguments parsing, and terminal setup/event loop.
• src/app.rs: Core application state management, file system queries, validation logic, and directory walking.
• src/permissions.rs: Permission data structures, converters between octal, mode, and symbolic formats, and unit tests.
• src/ui.rs: TUI drawing definitions using Ratatui layout blocks, tables, lists, text styled elements, and message modals.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.