---
title: "File and Directory Permissions"
slug: "file-and-directory-permissions-tg"
tags: ["5.5"]
updated: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z
published: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/file-and-directory-permissions-tg"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# File and Directory Permissions

Access permissions of files and directories are stored internally in a protocol-independent format and translated into protocol-specific permissions as required depending on a configurable choice of *[security flavor](/docs-5-5/docs/overview-tg#controlling-file-and-directory-permissions-across-protocols)*. For example, the owning user of a file created via NFS is set based on the UID in the file creation request but the file is also recognized as being owned by the same user when that user requests access to the file via SMB, where the request identifies the user by its SMB user SID.

Access checks are performed for all identities belonging to the user, so that the user has equal access via all protocols.

VAST Cluster lets you run a bulk permission update task on a large number of files and directories located under a certain path on an Element Store view. For more information about this capability, see [Running a Bulk Permission Update](/docs-5-5/docs/managing-views-tg#running-a-bulk-permission-update).