setting file permissions on a web server

[John Salerno]

I always read about how you need to set certain file permissions (for 
cgi files, for example), but it's never been clear to me *how* you do 
this. I know you can run the line

chmod 755 scriptname.py

but *where* do you run this? Is this done on your personal system, or on 
the server? What if you are using Windows? If it's done on the server, 
how do you do it?

The only way I've figured out so far how to do this is to upload my cgi 
files to my server, then within my FTP program I right-click the file 
and change its permission number that way, but that seems an inefficient 
way to do it, especially having to do it each time.

Is there a way to put the above line within the script perhaps, so that 
the script sets its permission automatically? Or do certain editors 
allow you to save files with a predetermined permission?

Aside from my right-clicking method, I don't know how else to do it.