26.2.2 Copying Existing Permissions

You can base a file's permissions on its existing permissions. To do this, instead of using `r', `w', or `x' after the operator, you use the letter `u', `g', or `o'. For example, the mode

o+g

adds the permissions for users who are in a file's group to the permissions that other users have for the file. Thus, if the file started out as mode 664 (`rw-rw-r--'), the above mode would change it to mode 666 (`rw-rw-rw-'). If the file had started out as mode 741 (`rwxr----x'), the above mode would change it to mode 745 (`rwxr--r-x'). The `-' and `=' operations work analogously.