How to remove execute permission from all txt files in Ubuntu

I have a Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit desktop in which I had installed wine in the past and later removed it. Now when I try to open txt files in nautilus, in many cases I get a dailouge box saying the file is executable and whether should I run or display it. I am annoyed by this behaviour and want to revoke execute permissions from these files. If anyone can show me how to do this it will be helpful.

Thanks

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2 Answers

To remove the execute bit from all .txt files in your home directory and all its subdirectories, try:

find "$HOME" -type f -executable -name '*.txt' -execdir chmod a-x {} +

How it works:

• find "$HOME"

  This starts find looking for files starting with your home directory and recursively including all subdirectories

• -type f

  This tells find to look only for regular files, not directories.

  It is important to restrict the search to regular files because, if we remove the execute bit from a directory, that directory become inaccessible.

• -executable

  This tells find to look only for files which have the executable bit set.

• -name '*.txt'

  This tells find to look only for files whose names match the glob *.txt.

• -execdir chmod a-x {} +

  This tells find to execute chmod a-x on any such files found.

  We use -execdir, as opposed to -exec, because it is more reliable should the names of directories change while this command is running.

  The + at the end of the form -execdir chmod a-x {} + tells find to run fewer instances of chmod by putting many files on each chmod command line if possible.

6

find . -name "*.txt" -exec chmod a-x {} \;

find command is self explanatory. It finds the files according to given arguments. Usage : find location comparison-criteria search term

find . -name "*.txt" -exec chmod a-x {} \; Here . means root directory, -name "*.txt" means find all files which include ".txt" in their names. -exec chmod a-x {} \; means execute the chmod command on all matching files.

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