File/Directory Permissions...

Hy-
I have a real problem understanding those permissions, especially when it comes to directories. I mean, how does the main dir permission affect the permisssions of the files in there and the sub dirs?
If anybody knows a tutorial I could read, or wants to attempt to explain it to me, please go ahead...
thanks
Sheriff

>> how does the main dir permission affect the permisssions of the files in there and the sub dirs?

Say you have a docroot /home/httpd/www

/home, /home/httpd and /home/httpd/www directories need SEARCH ACCESS for the user Apache runs as. So what is search access? Say Apache runs as nobody, then nobody user needs READ and EXECUTE in order to have search access. That is drwxr-xr-x.
Keep in mind, search access by all means doesn't mean write access. Say you have a directory test under your docroot /home/httpd/www/test as http://www.domain.com/test/ , and your script needs to write to this test directory, then test needs drwxr-xrwx (757) because user nobody needs READ, EXECUTE and WRITE permission.
Now that user nobody has Write access to it, say your script needs to append/modify a file called log.txt as /text/log.txt, then log.txt also need to give nobody write permission, that is rw-r--rw- (646).
It doesn't matter which subdirectory, all the top directory of this subdirectory still need read+execute (search access).

Is this clear?

I'm sorry, I never thanked you for your help!!!!
It really was and is highly appreciated!
Regards
Sheriff

It's never too late. In fact, I don't need any thanks from anyone, really. What I'd like is to see original poster follows up to the message and say something like: it worked!!, so whoever reads this message later on can ensure its correctness and benefit from it.