CHOWN(8) BSD System Manager's Manual CHOWN(8)NAMEchown — change file owner and group
SYNOPSISchown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] owner[:group] file ...
chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] :group file ...
DESCRIPTION
The chown utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the speci‐
fied files. Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left
unchanged unless -h is used.
The options are as follows:
-f Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor mod‐
ify the exit status to reflect such failures.
-H If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line
are followed. (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal
are not followed.)
-h If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the
group ID of the link itself.
-L If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
-P If the -R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
Instead, the user and/or group ID of the link itself are modi‐
fied. This is the default. Use -h to change the user ID and/or
the group of symbolic links.
-R Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies
rooted in the files instead of just the files themselves.
-v Cause chown to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modi‐
fied.
The -H, -L and -P options are ignored unless the -R option is specified.
In addition, these options override each other and the command's actions
are determined by the last one specified.
The owner and group operands are both optional; however, at least one
must be specified. If the group operand is specified, it must be pre‐
ceded by a colon (``:'') character.
The owner may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. If a user name
is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a user name. The group
may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. If a group name is
also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a group name.
For obvious security reasons, the ownership of a file may only be altered
by a super-user. Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file's
group ID to that group.
DIAGNOSTICS
The chown utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
COMPATIBILITY
Previous versions of the chown utility used the dot (``.'') character to
distinguish the group name. This has been changed to be a colon (``:'')
character, so that user and group names may contain the dot character.
On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have owners.
The -v option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
LEGACY DESCRIPTION
In legacy mode, the -R and -RP options do not change the user ID or the
group ID of symbolic links.
SEE ALSOchgrp(1), find(1), chown(2), fts(3), compat(5), symlink(7)STANDARDS
The chown utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compli‐
ant.
HISTORY
A chown utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
BSD March 31, 1994 BSD
