How To Prevent Files Folders From Deletion Or Modification In Ubuntu Using Chattr

Using chattr (Change Attribute) command in Linux, you can prevent accidental deletion and modification of files and folders even as root user by changing file attributes . It comes pre-installed in Ubuntu Linux operating system.

Prevent Files Folders From Deletion Or Modification using Chattr

Now select any file from the Home directory (for example: mytextfile.txt file in my Home folder) or create a new file. Now run below command to makes the file (mytextfile.txt) immutable. You can replace “mytextfile.txt” with your file name.

sudo chattr +i mytextfile.txt

Now you can’t modify or delete that file. Just try to delete and modify that file. You will get below errors.

chattr file deletion errorchattr file modification error

You can also try it with sudo command.

sudo rm mytextfile.txt
sudo echo 'CONNECTwww.com' >> mytextfile.txt

chattr sudo error

How to Revoke attributes using Chattr

In terminal app run below command.

sudo chattr -i mytextfile.txt

Now you can remove or modify that file.

Also Read:  How to Start App Windows in the Center on Ubuntu

In this same way you can make any folder and its files immutable using below command.

sudo chattr -R +i directory

Here you can replace “directory” with your real directory name in your Home folder.

To revoke it just run below command.

sudo chattr -R -i directory

In this way you can files and folders undeletable in your Ubuntu Linux system.

For the complete usage details run below command.

man chattr
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