chown

 

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 CHOWN(1)                       FSF                       CHOWN(1)
 
 
 
NAME
        chown - change file owner and group
 
SYNOPSIS
        chown [OPTION]... OWNER[:[GROUP]] FILE...
        chown [OPTION]... :GROUP FILE...
        chown [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...
 
DESCRIPTION
        This  manual  page  documents  the  GNU  version of chown.
        chown changes the user  and/or  group  ownership  of  each
        given  file,  according  to its first non-option argument,
        which is interpreted as follows.  If only a user name  (or
        numeric  user ID) is given, that user is made the owner of
        each given file, and the files' group is not changed.   If
        the  user  name  is followed by a colon or dot and a group
        name (or numeric group ID), with no spaces  between  them,
        the group ownership of the files is changed as well.  If a
        colon or dot but no group name follows the user name, that
        user  is  made the owner of the files and the group of the
        files is changed to that user's login group.  If the colon
        or  dot and group are given, but the user name is omitted,
        only the group of the files  is  changed;  in  this  case,
        chown performs the same function as chgrp.
 
        Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or
        GROUP.
 
        -c, --changes
               like verbose but report only when a change is made
 
        --dereference
               affect the referent of each symbolic  link,  rather
               than the symbolic link itself
 
        -h, --no-dereference
               affect  symbolic  links  instead  of any referenced
               file (available only on systems that can change the
               ownership of a symlink)
 
        --from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP
               change  the owner and/or group of each file only if
               its current owner and/or group match  those  speci­
               fied  here.  Either may be omitted, in which case a
               match is not required for the omitted attribute.
 
        -f, --silent, --quiet
               suppress most error messages
 
        --reference=RFILE
               use RFILE's owner and group rather than the  speci­
               fied OWNER:GROUP values
 
        -R, --recursive
               operate on files and directories recursively
 
        -v, --verbose
               output a diagnostic for every file processed
 
        --help display this help and exit
 
        --version
               output version information and exit
 
        Owner  is  unchanged  if  missing.   Group is unchanged if
        missing, but changed to login group if implied by  a  `:'.
        OWNER and GROUP may be numeric as well as symbolic.
 
AUTHOR
        Written by David MacKenzie.
 
 REPORTING BUGS
        Report bugs to <bug-fileutils@gnu.org>.
 
 COPYRIGHT
        Copyright © 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        This  is  free software; see the source for copying condi­
        tions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY
        or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 
SEE ALSO
        The  full  documentation for chown is maintained as a Tex­
        info manual.  If the info and chown programs are  properly
        installed at your site, the command
 
               info chown
 
        should give you access to the complete manual.
 
 
 
 chown (fileutils) 4.1       April 2001                   CHOWN(1)

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