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If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner] .Dd March 13, 2021 .Dt CHOWN 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm chown , .Nm lchown , .Nm fchown , .Nm fchownat .Nd change owner and group of a file .Sh SYNOPSIS .In unistd.h .In sys/types.h .Ft int .Fo chown .Fa "const char *path" .Fa "uid_t owner" .Fa "gid_t group" .Fc .Ft int .Fo lchown .Fa "const char *path" .Fa "uid_t owner" .Fa "gid_t group" .Fc .Ft int .Fo fchown .Fa "int fildes" .Fa "uid_t owner" .Fa "gid_t group" .Fc .Ft int .Fo fchownat .Fa "int fildes" .Fa "const char *path" .Fa "uid_t owner" .Fa "gid_t group" .Fa "int flag" .Fc .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn chown and .Fn fchown functions set the owner .Sy ID and group .Sy ID of the file specified by .Fa path or referenced by the open file descriptor .Fa fildes to .Fa owner and .Fa group respectively. If .Fa owner or .Fa group is specified as -1, .Fn chown and .Fn fchown do not change the corresponding .Sy ID of the file. .Pp The .Fn lchown function sets the owner .Sy ID and group .Sy ID of the named file in the same manner as .Fn chown , unless the named file is a symbolic link. In this case, .Fn lchown changes the ownership of the symbolic link file itself, while .Fn chown changes the ownership of the file or directory to which the symbolic link refers. .Pp The .Fn fchownat function sets the owner ID and group ID of the named file in the same manner as .Fn chown . If, however, the .Fa path argument is relative .Po does not start with a .Qq / .Pc , the path is resolved relative to the .Fa fildes argument rather than the current working directory. If the .Fa fildes argument has the special value .Dv AT_FDCWD , the path resolution reverts back to current working directory relative. If the .Fa flag argument is set to .Dv AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW , the function behaves like .Fn lchown with respect to symbolic links. If the .Fa path argument is absolute, the .Fa fildes argument is ignored. If the .Fa path argument is a null pointer, the function behaves like .Fn fchown . .Pp If .Fn chown , .Fn lchown , .Fn fchown , or .Fn fchownat is invoked by a process that does not have .Brq Dv PRIV_FILE_SETID asserted in its effective set, the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of the file mode, .Dv S_ISUID and .Dv S_ISGID respectively, are cleared .Po see .Xr chmod 2 .Pc . Additional restrictions apply when changing the ownership to uid 0. .Pp The operating system defines several privileges to override restrictions on the .Fn chown family of functions. When the .Brq Dv PRIV_FILE_CHOWN privilege is asserted in the effective set of the current process, there are no restrictions except in the special circumstances of changing ownership to or from uid 0. When the .Brq Dv PRIV_FILE_CHOWN_SELF privilege is asserted, ownership changes are restricted to the files of which the ownership matches the effective user ID of the current process. If neither privilege is asserted in the effective set of the calling process, ownership changes are limited to changes of the group of the file to the list of supplementary group IDs and the effective group ID. .Pp The operating system provides a configuration option, .Brq Dv _POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED , to control the default behavior of processes and the behavior of the NFS server. If .Brq Dv B_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED is not in effect, the privilege .Brq PRIV_FILE_CHOWN_SELF is asserted in the inheritable set of all processes unless overridden by .Xr policy.conf 4 or .Xr user_attr 4 . To set this configuration option, include the following line in .Pa /etc/system : .Bd -literal -offset indent set rstchown = 1 .Ed .Pp To disable this option, include the following line in .Pa /etc/system : .Bd -literal -offset indent set rstchown = 0 .Ed .Pp See .Xr system 4 and .Xr fpathconf 2 . .Pp Upon successful completion, .Fn chown , .Fn fchown , .Fn lchown , and .Fn fchownat mark for update the .Fa st_ctime field of the file. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, .Sy 0 is returned. Otherwise, .Sy -1 is returned, the owner and group of the named file remain unchanged, and .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS All of these functions will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er EPERM The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and the .Brq Dv PRIV_FILE_CHOWN privilege is not asserted in the effective set of the calling process, or the .Brq Dv PRIV_FILE_CHOWN_SELF privilege is not asserted in the effective set of the calling process. .El .Pp The .Fn chown , .Fn lchown , and .Fn fchownat functions will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix of .Fa path . .It Er EFAULT The .Fa path argument points to an illegal address and for .Fn fchownat , the file descriptor has the value .Dv AT_FDCWD . .It Er EINTR A signal was caught during the execution of the .Fn chown or .Fn lchown function. .It Er EINVAL The .Fa group or .Fa owner argument is out of range. .It Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating .Fa path . .It Er ENAMETOOLONG The length of the .Fa path argument exceeds .Brq Dv PATH_MAX , or the length of a .Fa path component exceeds .Brq Dv NAME_MAX while .Brq Dv _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect. .It Er ENOLINK The .Fa path argument points to a remote machine and the link to that machine is no longer active. .It Er ENOENT Either a component of the path prefix or the file referred to by .Fa path does not exist or is a null pathname. .It Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix of .Fa path is not a directory, or the path supplied to .Fn fchownat is relative and the file descriptor provided does not refer to a valid directory. .It Er EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system. .El .Pp The .Fn chown and .Fn fchownat functions will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er EBADF For .Fn fchown , the .Fa fildes argument is not an open file descriptor. .Pp For .Fn fchownat , the .Fa path argument is not absolute and the fildes argument is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD , nor an open file descriptor. .It Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Er EINTR A signal was caught during execution of the function. .It Er ENOLINK The .Fa fildes argument points to a remote machine and the link to that machine is no longer active. .It Er EINVAL The .Fa group or .Fa owner argument is out of range. .It Er EROFS The named file referred to by .Fa fildes resides on a read-only file system. .El .Sh INTERFACE STABILITY .Sy Committed .Sh MT-LEVEL .Sy Async-Signal-Safe .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chgrp 1 , .Xr chown 1 , .Xr chmod 2 , .Xr fpathconf 2 , .Xr system 4 , .Xr attributes 5 , .Xr standards 5