bash permission denied — how to fix (chmod +x)

Q: File on a noexec-mounted filesystem

If the file lives on a filesystem mounted with noexec (common for /tmp or NFS), chmod +x will not help. ``` # Check mount options mount | grep noexec # Copy the script to a normal filesystem first cp /tmp/script.sh ~/script.sh && chmod +x ~/script.sh && ~/script.sh ```

Quick Answer

# Add execute permission for the owner
chmod +x script.sh

# Run it
./script.sh

# Or run without changing permissions
bash script.sh

When this happens

bash: ./script.sh: Permission denied
# or
zsh: permission denied: ./script.sh

The file does not have the execute bit set. You can either add it with chmod, or run the script by passing it to bash explicitly.

Other causes & fixes

Check current permissions

ls -la script.sh
# -rw-r--r-- 1 user group 512 Jan 1 12:00 script.sh
#  ^^^ no x — not executable

# After chmod +x:
# -rwxr-xr-x 1 user group 512 Jan 1 12:00 script.sh

chmod permission modes

chmod +x script.sh          # add execute for all
chmod u+x script.sh         # add execute for owner only
chmod 755 script.sh         # rwxr-xr-x (owner:rwx, others:r-x)
chmod 700 script.sh         # rwx------ (owner only)

File on a noexec-mounted filesystem

If the file lives on a filesystem mounted with noexec (common for /tmp or NFS), chmod +x will not help.

# Check mount options
mount | grep noexec

# Copy the script to a normal filesystem first
cp /tmp/script.sh ~/script.sh && chmod +x ~/script.sh && ~/script.sh