# Copying files with a mode 400 seems to set to 620 instead **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [November 19, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copying-files-with-a-mode-400-seems-to-set-to-620-instead/19806 "2015-11-19T11:14:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gary.rutland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/59ef9b/32.png) [@gary.rutland](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gary.rutland)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copying-files-with-a-mode-400-seems-to-set-to-620-instead/19806/1 "2015-11-19T11:14:05Z")
Hey, This is potentially something that is frowned upon, but I’m trying to add SSH keys to a server via Ansible so that the destination server can use these keys later for other operations. So I am trying to do the following: ` - name: add default ssh keys become: true copy: src: ./.ssh/ dest: ~/.ssh mode: 400 force: true ` I would expect to see the keys added and set to read only: `-r--------` However, when looking at the keys on the destination server I’m seeing this: `-rw--w----` Is there any particular reason why they do not have the permissions I’m asking? Or is there a way I can upload them and then update all keys in that folder to be read only? Thanks, Gary ---
**Author:** ![sivel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/sivel/32/1198_2.png) [@sivel](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sivel)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/copying-files-with-a-mode-400-seems-to-set-to-620-instead/19806/2 "2015-11-20T21:45:37Z")
Check out the following comment from github: [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/13159#issuecomment-156482308](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/13159#issuecomment-156482308) Short answer is that you need to use 0400 instead of 400 so that Ansible knows you are supplying an octal mode as opposed to decimal.