chown/chown.8

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  32 .\"     @(#)chown.8     8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
  33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.20 2002/07/14 14:42:43 charnier Exp $
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  35 .Dd March 31, 1994
  36 .Dt CHOWN 8
  37 .Os
  38 .Sh NAME
  39 .Nm chown
  40 .Nd change file owner and group
  41 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  42 .Nm chown
  43 .Op Fl fhv
  44 .Oo
  45 .Fl R
  46 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
  47 .Oc
  48 .Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group
  49 .Ar
  50 .Nm chown
  51 .Op Fl fhv
  52 .Oo
  53 .Fl R
  54 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
  55 .Oc
  56 .No : Ns Ar group
  57 .Ar
  58 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  59 The
  60 .Nm chown
  61 utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files.
  62 Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless
  63 .Fl h
  64 is used.
  65 .Pp
  66 The options are as follows:
  67 .Bl -tag -width Ds
  68 .It Fl f
  69 Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
  70 the exit status to reflect such failures.
  71 .It Fl H
  72 If the
  73 .Fl R
  74 option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.
  75 (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.)
  76 .It Fl h
  77 If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the
  78 group ID of the link itself.
  79 .It Fl L
  80 If the
  81 .Fl R
  82 option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
  83 .It Fl P
  84 If the
  85 .Fl R
  86 option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
  87 Instead, the user and/or group ID of the link itself are modified.
  88 This is the default. Use
  89 .Fl h
  90 to change the user ID and/or the group of symbolic links.
  91 .It Fl R
  92 Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted
  93 in the files instead of just the files themselves.
  94 .It Fl v
  95 Cause
  96 .Nm chown
  97 to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified.
  98 .El
  99 .Pp
 100 The
 101 .Fl H ,
 102 .Fl L
 103 and
 104 .Fl P
 105 options are ignored unless the
 106 .Fl R
 107 option is specified.
 108 In addition, these options override each other and the
 109 command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
 110 .Pp
 111 The
 112 .Ar owner
 113 and
 114 .Ar group
 115 operands are both optional;
 116 however, at least one must be specified.
 117 If the
 118 .Ar group
 119 operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character.
 120 .Pp
 121 The
 122 .Ar owner
 123 may be either a numeric user ID or a user name.
 124 If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a
 125 user name.
 126 The
 127 .Ar group
 128 may be either a numeric group ID or a group name.
 129 If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a
 130 group name.
 131 .Pp
 132 For obvious security reasons,
 133 the ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user.
 134 Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file's group ID
 135 to that group.
 136 .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
 137 .Ex -std
 138 .Sh COMPATIBILITY
 139 Previous versions of the
 140 .Nm chown
 141 utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name.
 142 This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character,
 143 so that user and group names may contain the dot character.
 144 .Pp
 145 On previous versions of this system,
 146 symbolic links did not have owners.
 147 .Pp
 148 The
 149 .Fl v
 150 option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
 151 .Sh LEGACY DESCRIPTION
 152 In legacy mode, the
 153 .Fl R
 154 and
 155 .Fl RP
 156 options do not change the user ID
 157 or the group ID of symbolic links.
 158 .Sh SEE ALSO
 159 .Xr chgrp 1 ,
 160 .Xr find 1 ,
 161 .Xr chown 2 ,
 162 .Xr fts 3 ,
 163 .Xr compat 5 ,
 164 .Xr symlink 7
 165 .Sh STANDARDS
 166 The
 167 .Nm chown
 168 utility is expected to be
 169 .St -p1003.2
 170 compliant.
 171 .Sh HISTORY
 172 A
 173 .Nm chown
 174 utility appeared in
 175 .At v1 .