Permission denied errors in Linux even if you have correct permission to the file

-bash: /home/user/.bash_logout: Permission denied

Recently, I faced a unique challenge when migrating users to a new Linux server. I had given them ownership of their respective home directories, but to my surprise, they encountered permission errors when trying to access their bash_logout, bashrc, and bash_profile files. One error that stood out was “-bash: /home/user/.bash_logout: Permission denied.” In some cases, they couldn’t even access their home folders at all.

After struggling to troubleshoot the issue, I finally realized that the /home directory had incorrect permissions. To resolve the problem, I simply adjusted the ownership and permissions of /home using the following commands:

# chown root:root /home
# chmod 755 /home

Once I made these changes, everything worked smoothly for the users. It’s essential to ensure that all directories and files have the correct permissions when setting up a new server or making changes to an existing one.