Change all files and folders permissions of a directory to 644/755

Question

How would I change all files to 644 and all folders to 755 using chmod from the linux command prompt? (Terminal)

Answer 1

Do both in a single pass with:

find -type f ... -o -type d ...

As in, find type f OR type d, and do the first ... for files and the second ... for dirs. Specifically:

find -type f -exec chmod --changes 644 {} + -o -type d -exec chmod --changes 755 {} +

Leave off the --changes if you want it to work silently.