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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.
63 The options are as follows:
68 option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.
69 (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.)
73 option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
77 option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
80 Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted
81 in the files instead of just the files themselves.
83 Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
84 the exit status to reflect such failures.
88 to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified.
96 options are ignored unless the
99 In addition, these options override each other and the
100 command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
106 operands are both optional, however, one must be specified.
109 operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character.
113 may be either a numeric user ID or a user name.
114 If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a
118 may be either a numeric group ID or a group name.
119 If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a
122 The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for
123 obvious security reasons.
127 Previous versions of the
129 utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name.
130 This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and
131 group names may contain the dot character.
133 On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have
138 option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
148 utility is expected to be