How to Make File and Directory Undeletable in Linux

Sometimes you may need to make a specific file or directory undeletable in Linux. You can easily do this using chattr command that modifies the attributes of the file/directory making it undeletable. In this article, we will learn how to make file and directory undeletable in Linux.

How to Make File and Directory Undeletable in Linux

Here is a simple example to make /home/ubuntu/data.txt file undeletable or immutable. In this case, the file cannot be modified in any way. It cannot even be renamed or linked to.

You need superuser privileges to set or remove this attribute.

$ sudo chattr +i /home/ubuntu/data.txt
OR
$ sudo chattr +i -V /home/ubuntu/data.txt

You can view the attributes of a file using lsattr command.

$ lsattr /home/ubuntu/data.txt

Now if you try to remove the file, you will get a message that it is not permitted.

$ rm /home/ubuntu/data.txt

rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/data.txt': Operation not permitted
$ sudo rm /home/ubuntu/data.txt
rm: cannot remove '/home/ubuntu/data.txt': Operation not permitted

If you want to make your file deletable again, use -i option in chattr.