Linux – How to give Windows partions’ file execute permission

ext4linux-mintntfspermissions

I have installed Linux Mint 17 and Windows 8, as dual boot. 500GB hard disk has 5 partitions. Two of them are NTFS and the other 3 are ext4 partitions.

When I log into Windows, I can not see any ext4 partition, only NTFS partitions.

When I am on Linux, I can see all partitions. But when I go and try to give execution permission to files in NTFS, it cannot be done. No error message appears, but the permissions are not changed.

How can I give the execution permission to a file on a NTFS partition?.

Best Answer

  • You need a ext4 driver for Windows to be able to see an ext4 partition.

  • NTFS does not have Linux-style attributes, so any permission change is implemented as a no-op in NTFS file system module. To execute something on a NTFS partition you have 2 choices:

    1. Mount the partition with exec option, which makes all files on the partition executable. So your /etc/fstab/ entry might be like: 

      /dev/sda2  /media/partition ntfs-3g defaults,exec 0 0

    2. Copy the file to a partition supporting Linux-style attributes, run chmod +x file and execute it.

You might also want to look at man mount to see what different options are and build an options line that matches your needs best.

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