chmod without modding other user perms

Question

I want to chmod a file but I want to do it so it doesn't effect the other "user"/"groups"

e.g. giving the root 0

before 741
chmod 0** [filename]
after 041

or give the group a 7

before 741
chmod *7* [filename]
after 771

anyway to do this?

Answer 1

You can use the symbolic representation, which has + and -:

chmod u-rwx         # remove rwx permissions from user

or

chmod g+rwx         # add rwx permissions to group