5+ practical examples to learn sticky bit in Linux

In this article we will learn about Unix or Linux sticky bit with examples and everything related to this special permission

Below are the most common tools we use to enforce permission and restrictions to files and directories in Linux and Unix

• chmod
• chown
• setfacl
• chattr

But apart from this, there are three other types of special permission which can be used in Linux or Unix

• setuid
• setgui
• sticky bit

Each of these special permission have their own benefit and you can decide to choose them based on your requirement. I will share various examples to understand each of the special permission separately.

Let us learn about sticky bit special permission in Linux and Unix.

• On older versions of the Linux and UNIX System that predated demand paging, this bit was known as the sticky bit.
• If it was set for an executable program file, then the first time the program was executed, a copy of the program’s text was saved in the swap area when the process terminated.
• The program would then load into memory more quickly the next time it was executed, because the swap area was handled as a contiguous file, as compared to the possibly random location of data blocks in a normal UNIX file system.
• The Unix sticky bit was often set for common application programs, such as the text editor and the passes of the C compiler.
• Naturally, there was a limit to the number of sticky files that could be contained in the swap area before running out of swap space, but it was a useful technique.
• The name sticky came about because the text portion of the file stuck around in the swap area until the system was rebooted.
• With today’s newer Linux and UNIX systems, most of which have a virtual memory system and a faster file system, the need for this technique has disappeared.
• Hence today we use sticky bit mostly on directories and not on files.

• By adding the linux sticky bit permission, the write permission for directories changes meaning.
• Instead of meaning “add and delete all files in the directory,” the only users who can now delete files in this directory are
  
  • The owner of the file or
    
  • The owner of the directory (which is normally the root user) or
    
  • The root user
    
• Anyone can still add a file into this directory, as long as it doesn’t result in overwriting another user’s file.

As you can see /tmp and /var/tmp, by default have sticky bit permission

# ls -ld /var/tmp/ /tmp/
drwxrwxrwt. 9 root root 4096 Mar 23 18:45 /tmp/
drwxrwxrwt. 3 root root 4096 Mar 22 14:50 /var/tmp/

For the sake of this article I will assume that you are familiar with the different permission fields of user, group and others. 

Set sticky bit using Octal method (1)

Below are some examples to apply linux sticky bit using the Octal method with chmod in Linux and Unix. I have created a directory /tmp/marketing on which I will apply linux sticky bit special permission

# mkdir /tmp/marketing

To apply sticky bit with 755 permission

# chmod 1755 marketing/

As you see now we have "t" shown in the "execute field of others"

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-t 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

Next apply sticky bit with 750 permission

# chmod 1750 marketing

If you verify the permission, you will see uppercase "T" unlike lowercase "t" we saw above

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-x--T 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

Unset sticky bit using Octal method (1)

So now how do we remove the "t" permission using octal method? Similar to above commands, we can also remove or unset linux sticky bit special permission with chmod. To remove sticky bit permission using octal method, you just need to avoid using "1" while applying the permission to the directory or file For example, here linux sticky bit is set on "marketing" directory:

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-x--T 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

So to unset sticky bit we just apply the new permission without specifying octal value of sticky bit:

# chmod 755 marketing

Verify the permission, as you see the linux or unix sticky bit permission is removed

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

Alternatively, you can use "0" octal value to remove sticky bit special permission as shown below:

# chmod 0755 marketing

Next you can verify the permission of your directory:

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

As you see, we have successfully unset linux or unix sticky bit special permission

I am sure you will be wondering at this stage, what is the difference between small 't' and capital 'T'. I will address this question at later part of this article.

Set sticky bit using Symbolic method (t)

Below are some examples to set linux sticky bit using the Symbolic method with chmod in Linux and Unix. I have created a directory /tmp/marketing on which I will apply unix sticky bit special permission

# mkdir /tmp/marketing

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

To set sticky bit special permission using symbolic method, use the following command:

# chmod +t marketing

Next verify the permission:

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-t 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

As expected we have small "t" in the execute section of the permission

Alternatively you can also use "o+t" with chmod to set sticky bit permission. Here "o" means "others" field

# chmod o+t marketing

Unset sticky bit using symbolic method (t)

So now how do we remove the "t" permission using symbolic method? Similar to above commands, we can also remove or unset Unix sticky bit permission using symbolic method (t). To remove sticky bit you just need to use (-t) instead of (+t) as we used earlier:

For example, for the same directory you can execute below command to unset sticky bit special permission:

# chmod -t marketing/

Verify the permission:

# ls -ld marketing
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:47 marketing

Alternatively you can also use (o-t) i.e. remove sticky bit permission for "others"

# chmod o-t marketing/

I hope you are aware of the different section of permission field.

For example for uppercase "T" i.e "drwxr-x--T"

Similarly for lowercase "t" i.e. "drwxr-x--t"

So to summarise:

• If the "others" section contains "execute permission + sticky bit" then you will get lowercase "t"
• If the "others" section does not contains execute permission and only sticky bit then you will get uppercase "T"

How does the sticky bit work? Why we use sticky bit in Linux or Unix?

Now up til now we learned what is sticky bit in theory, let us see some practical examples of Linux/Unix sticky bit in action.
I will apply sticky bit on my "/tmp/marketing" directory

# mkdir /tmp/marketing

# chmod +t /tmp/marketing/

# ls -ld /tmp/marketing/
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 Mar 23 17:45 /tmp/marketing/

I ave two users on this system, user1 and user2. Now both users are supposed to place their files under "/tmp/marketing"

[user1@centos-8 ~]$ touch /tmp/marketing/user1_file
[user2@centos-8 ~]$ touch /tmp/marketing/user2_file

So both the users have created a file under /tmp/marketing directory.

[user1@centos-8 marketing]$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user1 user1 0 Mar 23 17:47 user1_file
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user2 user2 0 Mar 23 17:44 user2_file

But what if user1 plans to delete user2's file?

[user1@centos-8 marketing]$ rm -f user2_file
rm: cannot remove 'user2_file': Operation not permitted

As you see, since we had sticky bit permission on the parent directory, a non privilege user is allowed to remove or modify files which are owned by self only.

For example: to find all the directories under "/" with Linux sticky bit permission, use below command

# find / -perm -1000 -type d
/sys/fs/bpf
/dev/mqueue
/dev/shm
/tmp
/tmp/.font-unix
/tmp/.X11-unix

Lastly I hope the steps from the article to understand what is sticky bit, how to apply and remove Linux or Unix sticky bit permission, understanding the difference between small 't' and capital 'T' on Linux and Unix was helpful. So, let me know your suggestions and feedback using the comment section.

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