Can't access home folder

Question

While installing Matlab, I mistakenly typed sudo chmod +x ./java in the home folder.

And I got i/o error that you are not allowed to access the home folder. Suddenly everything in my home folder disappeared.

Although the disk shows filled up data. I guess the folder permission need to be changed.

Solution

You just need to chown the directory back to yourself.

sudo chown -R user /home/user

Comments

[sohel4r]

first see your home folder permission ls -l.if there have't any execute permission then give permission with 744 or u+x;

[user274219]

ls -l does not show anything......should I just type chmod u+x?

[goo]

I question your diagnosis. Simply running chmod +x ./java as root will not break access to $HOME. Do ls -ld $HOME;echo $HOME to show $HOME permissions, and to verify $HOME makes sense. My $HOME is mode 0700 (rwx------). sudo chmod u=rwx,g=,o= $HOME is my suggestion. sudo chmod u=rwx,g=rx,o= $HOME to allow group read and search. man chmod

[user274219]

ls -ld shows:dr-xr-xr-x 10 root root 2048 2011-09-23 21:47

[wjandrea]

I agree with waltinator. It doesn't make sense for that command to change ownership and remove write permissions. Do you maybe have a wrapper on sudo or chmod? Also you didn't even need to run chmod as root, since I assume you're the file owner. (BTW I realize this is an old post -- just commenting for future readers.)

[wjandrea]

According to the comments, the owner doesn't have write permissions, so OP will also need to run chmod u+w /home/user.

[wjandrea]

And the group ownership was changed to, so instead of just user, use user: in the chown command.

[wjandrea]

Also do you need to make it recursive? Aren't there files in the home folder that are supposed to be owned by root, or am I thinking of something else?