Access denied to file in sites/all/default/files I am getting: 

access denied   04/30/2013 - 16:56  sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/KRIS... admin


in my error message log when trying to do some file updating. I am guessing this is a permissions problem, but i am running on a local server. How do I change permissions in drupal for access to read/write to the files folder on a mac in terminal?
Drupal.org has a great guide on permissions.

The TLDR; version.

You can change permissions by opening up your terminal and perform the following commmand:

(sudo) chmod &lt;mode&gt; &lt;path&gt;.

For more information about chmod, check the manpage. Or just perform:

chmod --help