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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 $
40 .Nd change file owner and group
46 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
48 .Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group
54 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
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
66 The options are as follows:
69 Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
70 the exit status to reflect such failures.
74 option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.
75 (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.)
77 If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the
78 group ID of the link itself.
82 option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
86 option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
87 Instead, the user and/or group ID of the link itself are modified.
90 Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted
91 in the files instead of just the files themselves.
95 to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified.
103 options are ignored unless the
106 In addition, these options override each other and the
107 command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
113 operands are both optional;
114 however, at least one must be specified.
117 operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character.
121 may be either a numeric user ID or a user name.
122 If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a
126 may be either a numeric group ID or a group name.
127 If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a
130 For obvious security reasons,
131 the ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user.
132 Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file's group ID
137 Previous versions of the
139 utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name.
140 This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character,
141 so that user and group names may contain the dot character.
143 On previous versions of this system,
144 symbolic links did not have owners.
148 option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
149 .Sh LEGACY DESCRIPTION
154 options do not change the user ID
155 or the group ID of symbolic links.
166 utility is expected to be