.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.\" from: @(#)chown.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
-.\" $NetBSD: chown.8,v 1.11 1998/10/05 21:37:38 kim Exp $
+.\" @(#)chown.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
+.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.20 2002/07/14 14:42:43 charnier Exp $
.\"
.Dd March 31, 1994
.Dt CHOWN 8
-.Os BSD 4
+.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm chown
.Nd change file owner and group
.Sh SYNOPSIS
-.Nm
+.Nm chown
+.Op Fl fhnv
.Oo
.Fl R
.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
.Oc
-.Op Fl fh
-.Ar owner Op Ar :group
-.Ar file ...
-.Nm ""
+.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group
+.Ar
+.Nm chown
+.Op Fl fhnv
.Oo
.Fl R
.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
.Oc
-.Op Fl fh
-.Ar :group
-.Ar file ...
+.No : Ns Ar group
+.Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
-.Nm
-sets the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files.
+The
+.Nm chown
+utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files.
+Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless
+.Fl h
+is used.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
+.It Fl f
+Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
+the exit status to reflect such failures.
.It Fl H
If the
.Fl R
option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.
(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.)
+.It Fl h
+If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the
+group ID of the link itself.
.It Fl L
If the
.Fl R
If the
.Fl R
option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
+Instead, the user and/or group ID of the link itself are modified.
+This is the default. Use
+.Fl h
+to change the user ID and/or the group of symbolic links.
.It Fl R
Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted
in the files instead of just the files themselves.
-.It Fl f
-Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
-the exit status to reflect such failures.
-.It Fl h
-If
-.Ar file
-is a symbolic link, the owner and/or group of the link is changed.
+.It Fl n
+Interpret user ID and group ID as numeric, avoiding name lookups.
+.It Fl v
+Cause
+.Nm chown
+to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified.
.El
.Pp
The
command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
.Pp
The
-.Fl L
-option cannot be used together with the
-.Fl h
-option.
-.Pp
-The
.Ar owner
and
.Ar group
-operands are both optional, however, one must be specified.
+operands are both optional;
+however, at least one must be specified.
If the
.Ar group
operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character.
If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a
group name.
.Pp
-The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for
-obvious security reasons.
-.Pp
-Unless invoked by the super-user,
-.Nm
-clears the set-user-id and set-group-id bits on a file to prevent
-accidental or mischievous creation of set-user-id and set-group-id
-programs.
-.Pp
-The
-.Nm
-utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
+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.
+.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
+.Ex -std
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
Previous versions of the
-.Nm
+.Nm 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.
+This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character,
+so that user and group names may contain the dot character.
+.Pp
+On previous versions of this system,
+symbolic links did not have owners.
+.Pp
+The
+.Fl v
+option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.
+.Sh LEGACY DESCRIPTION
+In legacy mode, the
+.Fl R
+and
+.Fl RP
+options do not change the user ID
+or the group ID of symbolic links.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chgrp 1 ,
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr chown 2 ,
-.Xr lchown 2 ,
.Xr fts 3 ,
+.Xr compat 5 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
-.Nm
-command is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compliant.
+.Nm chown
+utility is expected to be
+.St -p1003.2
+compliant.
+.Sh HISTORY
+A
+.Nm chown
+utility appeared in
+.At v1 .
projects / apple / file_cmds.git / blobdiff