NAME
chown - change file owner and group
SYNOPSIS
chown [options] user[:group
POSIX options: [-R]
GNU options (shortest form): [-cfhvR] [--help] [--version]
[--]
DESCRIPTION
chown changes the user and/or group ownership of each given
file as specified by the first non-option argument as fol-
lows: 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 and a group name (or numeric group ID), with no
spaces between them, the group ownership of the files is
changed as well.
GNU DETAILS
The GNU version allows a dot instead of a colon (following
BSD). [This was not allowed by POSIX since a dot is a valid
character in a user name.] 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.
POSIX OPTIONS
-R Recursively change ownership of directories and their
contents.
GNU OPTIONS
-c, --changes
Verbosely describe the action for each file whose own-
ership actually changes.
-f, --silent, --quiet
Do not print error messages about files whose ownership
cannot be changed.
-h, --no-dereference
Act on symbolic links themselves instead of what they
point to. Only available if the lchown system call is
provided.
-v, --verbose
Verbosely describe the action (or non-action) taken for
every file.
-R, --recursive
Recursively change ownership of directories and their
contents.
GNU STANDARD OPTIONS
--help
Print a usage message on standard output and exit suc-
cessfully.
--version
Print version information on standard output, then exit
successfully.
-- Terminate option list.
ENVIRONMENT
The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and LC_MESSAGES have
the usual meaning.
CONFORMING TO
POSIX 1003.2 does not allow use of the dot as separator
between user name and group name.
NOTES
This page describes chown as found in the fileutils-3.16
package; other versions may differ slightly. Mail correc-
tions and additions to aeb@cwi.nl and aw@mail1.bet1.puv.fi
and ragnar@lightside.ddns.org . Report bugs in the program
to fileutils-bugs@gnu.ai.mit.edu.