1.\"- 2.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 3.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 6.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.Dd July 9, 2026 33.Dt CHFLAGS 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm chflags 37.Nd change file flags 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl fhvx 41.Oo 42.Fl R 43.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 44.Oc 45.Ar flags 46.Ar 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48The 49.Nm 50utility modifies the file flags of the listed files 51as specified by the 52.Ar flags 53operand. 54.Pp 55The options are as follows: 56.Bl -tag -width indent 57.It Fl f 58Do not display a diagnostic message if 59.Nm 60could not modify the flags for 61.Va file , 62nor modify the exit status to reflect such failures. 63.It Fl H 64If the 65.Fl R 66option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed 67and hence unaffected by the command. 68(Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.) 69.It Fl h 70If the 71.Ar file 72is a symbolic link, 73change the file flags of the link itself rather than the file to which it points. 74.It Fl L 75If the 76.Fl R 77option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 78.It Fl P 79If the 80.Fl R 81option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 82This is the default. 83.It Fl R 84Change the file flags of the file hierarchies rooted in the files, 85instead of just the files themselves. 86Beware of unintentionally matching the 87.Dq Pa ".." 88hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 89.Dq Li ".*" . 90.It Fl v 91Cause 92.Nm 93to be verbose, showing filenames as the flags are modified. 94If the 95.Fl v 96option is specified more than once, the old and new flags of the file 97will also be printed, in octal notation. 98.It Fl x 99Do not cross mount points. 100.El 101.Pp 102The flags are specified as an octal number or a comma separated list 103of keywords. 104The following keywords are currently defined: 105.Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Cm opaque" 106.It Cm arch , archived 107set the archived flag (super-user only) 108.It Cm nodump 109set the nodump flag (owner or super-user only) 110.It Cm opaque 111set the opaque flag (owner or super-user only) 112.It Cm sappnd , sappend 113set the system append-only flag (super-user only) 114.It Cm schg , schange , simmutable 115set the system immutable flag (super-user only) 116.It Cm snapshot 117set the snapshot flag (filesystems do not allow changing this flag) 118.It Cm sunlnk , sunlink 119set the system undeletable flag (super-user only) 120.It Cm uappnd , uappend 121set the user append-only flag (owner or super-user only) 122.It Cm uarch , uarchive 123set the archive flag (owner or super-user only) 124.It Cm uchg , uchange , uimmutable 125set the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only) 126.It Cm udontcache , dontcache 127set the dont cache flag (owner or super-user only) 128.It Cm uhidden , hidden 129set the hidden file attribute (owner or super-user only) 130.It Cm uoffline , offline 131set the offline file attribute (owner or super-user only) 132.It Cm urdonly , rdonly , readonly 133set the DOS, Windows and CIFS readonly flag (owner or super-user only) 134.It Cm usparse , sparse 135set the sparse file attribute (owner or super-user only) 136.It Cm usystem , system 137set the DOS, Windows and CIFS system flag (owner or super-user only) 138.It Cm ureparse , reparse 139set the Windows reparse point file attribute (owner or super-user only) 140.It Cm uunlnk , uunlink 141set the user undeletable flag (owner or super-user only) 142.El 143.Pp 144Putting the letters 145.Dq Ar no 146before or removing the letters 147.Dq Ar no 148from a keyword causes the flag to be cleared. 149For example: 150.Pp 151.Bl -tag -offset indent -width "nouchg" -compact 152.It Cm nouchg 153clear the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only) 154.It Cm dump 155clear the nodump flag (owner or super-user only) 156.El 157.Pp 158A few of the octal values include: 159.Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Li 10" 160.It Li 0 161Clear all file flags. 162.It Li 1 163Translates to the 164.Cm nodump 165keyword. 166.It Li 2 167Translates to the 168.Cm uchg 169keyword. 170.It Li 3 171Translates to the 172.Cm uchg , nodump 173keywords. 174.It Li 4 175Translates to the 176.Cm uappnd 177keyword. 178.It Li 10 179Translates to the 180.Cm opaque 181keyword. 182.It Li 20 183translates to the 184.Cm uunlnk 185keyword. 186.El 187.Pp 188Other combinations of keywords may be placed by using 189the octets assigned; however, these are the most notable. 190.Pp 191Unless the 192.Fl H , 193.Fl L , 194or 195.Fl h 196options are given, 197.Nm 198on a symbolic link always succeeds and has no effect. 199The 200.Fl H , 201.Fl L 202and 203.Fl P 204options are ignored unless the 205.Fl R 206option is specified. 207In addition, these options override each other and the 208command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 209.Pp 210You can use "ls -lo" to see the flags of existing files. 211.Pp 212Note that the ability to change certain flags is dependent 213on the current kernel 214.Va securelevel 215setting. 216See 217.Xr security 7 218for more information on this setting. 219.Pp 220If 221.Nm 222receives a 223.Dv SIGINFO 224signal (see the 225.Cm status 226argument for 227.Xr stty 1 ) , 228then the current filename as well as the old and new flags are displayed. 229.Sh EXIT STATUS 230.Ex -std 231.Sh EXAMPLES 232Recursively clear all flags on files and directories contained within the 233.Fa foobar 234directory hierarchy: 235.Dl Nm Fl R Ar 0 Ar foobar 236.Sh SEE ALSO 237.Xr ls 1 , 238.Xr chflags 2 , 239.Xr stat 2 , 240.Xr fts 3 , 241.Xr security 7 , 242.Xr symlink 7 243.Sh HISTORY 244The 245.Nm 246command first appeared in 247.Bx 4.4 . 248.Sh BUGS 249Only a limited number of utilities are 250.Nm 251aware. 252Some of these tools include 253.Xr ls 1 , 254.Xr cp 1 , 255.Xr find 1 , 256.Xr install 1 , 257.Xr dump 8 , 258and 259.Xr restore 8 . 260In particular a tool which is not currently 261.Nm 262aware is the 263.Xr pax 1 264utility. 265