How to recursively change sharing/permission of a folder in Mac OS X

Try the chmod command. For example, if you have a directory name mydir, the following command will enable read/write for that mydir recursively.

$ chmod -R +rw mydir

For more information:

$ man chmod

Select the root folder that you'd like to work with and open the Inspector (CMD-i or right click and "Show Info"). The bottom panel is where you can manage permissions.

Add and remove permissions to the list there. To apply the same permissions recursively to every subfolder, click the cog and select "Apply to Enclosed Items..."

Note: I noticed that the "Apply to Enclosed Items..." is greyed out when the little lock icon at bottom right hand side of window is locked. If this is the case just click on the lock to unlock it by entering your credentials and then try again with "Apply to Enclosed Items..."

You want to use the chmod and chown commands.

If I remember correctly, you can change the permissions like this:

chmod -R +a "joshhunt allow read" /some/file/or/folder/
chmod -R +a "Guest deny read" /some/other/folder/
chmod -R +a "Guest deny write" /some/other/folder/

For more details one these commands, look up their respective man pages in Terminal:

man chmod
man chown