Get Info
Select one or more items and press ⌘I, or right-click and choose Get Info. With nothing selected, Get Info is about the folder the pane shows.
What it shows
- Kind: folder, file, link or link to a folder, on this Mac or on the server.
- Where: the folder it is in.
- Size: a file's size; for a folder, what it holds, counted as Finder does: 3.1 MB in 2 files and 1 folder. Counting a big folder on a server can take a while; closing the sheet stops it.
- Modified.
- Points to: for a link, where it points.
Owner and group
The two fields show the owner and the group by name where it is known (on this
Mac always; on a server from its /etc/passwd and /etc/group), and by number
where it is not. Type a name or a number to change them. When several items
with different owners are selected, the fields are empty, and empty means
"leave as it is".
Only an administrator (root, on a server) can give files to another user, and a group can only be one you are in; anything else is refused with a message saying so.
Permissions
Tick Read, Write and Run for the Owner, the Group and
Everyone, or type the mode in the octal field (755, 644); the two
follow each other, and the rwxr-xr-x beside them shows the result. When
several items with different permissions are selected, it says so.
A link has no permissions of its own, so for links there is nothing to tick.
Applying
Apply (or Return) appears once something has changed.
- Apply the changes to everything inside applies to every file and folder in a folder, all the way down. Only what you changed goes down: change the group alone, and the permissions inside are left as they are.
- Links inside are left alone.