I want to cat /home/ubuntu/.gnupg/gpg.conf which has 0600 permission.  ubuntu [~]  sudo stat /home/ubuntu/.gnupg/gpg.conf  File: /home/ubuntu/.gnupg/gpg.conf  Size: 9398        Blocks: 24         IO Block: 4096   regular fileDevice: fc00h/64512d    Inode: 529194      Links: 1Access: (0600/-rw-------)  Uid: ( 1001/  ubuntu)   Gid: ( 1001/  ubuntu)Access: 2017-01-23 17:10:31.170988382 +0000Modify: 2017-01-23 17:10:23.107069483 +0000Change: 2017-01-23 18:47:55.460216373 +0000 Birth: -but when I try to cat it, I get permission denied! ubuntu [~]  who am iubuntu   pts/0        2017-01-23 15:27 (10.0.2.2) ubuntu [~]  cat /home/ubuntu/.gnupg/gpg.confcat: /home/ubuntu/.gnupg/gpg.conf: Permission deniedWhat I'm doing wrong?
In spite of proper permission not being able to cat the file
linux;ubuntu;files;permissions;acl
Most likely, the permissions on the .gnupg directory are missing the x permissions, which allows traversing to the gpg.conf file and its visibility.Try this:sudo chmod u+x /home/ubuntu/.gnupg