How to change file permissions in Git on Windows

Make a Git repository file on a local Windows machine executable by changing the CHMOD value, which can be transferred to the repository following a push.

Sometimes its important to set a file to executable whilst it is stored in a repository on a Windows machine so that it can be executed when it’s pushed to another server or platform via Git.

To do this, cd to the repository on your Windows machine and check existing CHMOD values:

git ls-files --stage

The output should show values for each file in your repository, either 100644 (not executable) or 100755 (executable).

To make a file executable, enter the following command:

git update-index --chmod=+x path/to/file.ext

In the example above, the file /path/to/file.ext would become executable. To change this back, change +x to -x:

git update-index --chmod=-x path/to/file.ext

Now, re-enter git ls-files --stage and it should be apparent that the CHMOD values for the file have changed.

Now check your files back into GitHub:

git commit -m "Made file.ext executable"
git push

Unfortunately Git stores only one bit for file permissions so it’s not possible to change CHMOD values to something else, such as 0750 in Windows. Nevertheless, the above approach will ensure that the files are executable on the other server.

Comments

2 responses to “How to change file permissions in Git on Windows”

On 7 May 2021, Enzo wrote:

Simple and useful, thanks!

Reply

On 7 August 2022, James wrote:

A hidden nugget of information!

Reply

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