chgrp(1)chgrp(1)NAMEchgrp - Changes the group ownership of a file or directory
SYNOPSISchgrp [-fhR] group file
The chgrp command changes the group associated with the specified file
or directory to group.
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan‐
dards as follows:
chgrp: XCU5.0
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about
industry standards and associated tags.
OPTIONS
[Tru64 UNIX] Suppresses all error reporting. [Tru64 UNIX] If file is
a symbolic link, the command chgrp-h file changes the group of the
symbolic link. The command chgrp file changes the group of the file
referenced by the symbolic link. Causes chgrp to descend recursively
through its directory arguments, setting the specified group ID.
OPERANDS
A group name from the group database or a numeric group ID. Either
specifies a group ID to be given to each file named by one of the file
operands. If a numeric group operand exists in the group database as a
group name, the group ID number associated with that group name is used
as the group ID. A pathname of a file whose group ID is to be modi‐
fied.
DESCRIPTION
To change the group ID of a file, you must have superuser privilege or
your effective user ID must match the owner ID of the file. If you do
not have superuser privilege you can change the group ID of a file only
to your effective group ID or to the value of a group of which you are
a member.
The group argument must be either a valid group name that already
exists in the group database or a valid group ID.
For each file operand, the chgrp command performs actions equivalent to
the chown() function called with the following arguments: The file op‐
erand is used as the path argument. The user ID of the file is used as
the owner argument. The specified group ID is used as the group argu‐
ment.
Unless the chgrp command is invoked by a process with appropriate priv‐
ileges, the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of a file are cleared
upon successful completion.
NOTES
If the chgrp command is invoked with the -R option and attempts but
fails to change the group ID of a particular file in a specified file
hierarchy, it continues to process the remaining files in the hierar‐
chy. If the chgrp command cannot read or search a directory within a
hierarchy, it continues to process the other parts of the hierarchy
that are accessible.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: Successful completion, all
requested changes were made. An error occurred.
EXAMPLES
To change the group ownership of the file or directory named proposals
to staff, enter: chgrp staff proposals
The group access permissions for proposals now apply to staff. See
chmod for details.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of chgrp: Pro‐
vides a default value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from
the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari‐
ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the
variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, over‐
rides the values of all the other internationalization variables.
Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi‐
byte characters in arguments). Determines the locale for the format
and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Deter‐
mines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MES‐
SAGES.
FILES
Contains group information.
SEE ALSO
Commands: chmod(1), chown(1), groups(1)
Functions: chmod(2), chown(2)
Files: group(4)
Standards: standards(5)chgrp(1)
