1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. 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.\" @(#)chown.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94 33.\" 34.Dd March 31, 1994 35.Dt CHOWN 8 36.Os BSD 4 37.Sh NAME 38.Nm chown 39.Nd change file owner and group 40.Sh SYNOPSIS 41.Nm chown 42.Oo 43.Fl R 44.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 45.Oc 46.Op Fl f 47.Ar owner Op Ar :group 48.Ar file ... 49.Nm chown 50.Oo 51.Fl R 52.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 53.Oc 54.Op Fl f 55.Ar :group 56.Ar file ... 57.Sh DESCRIPTION 58.Nm Chown 59sets the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 60.Pp 61The options are as follows: 62.Bl -tag -width Ds 63.It Fl H 64If the 65.Fl R 66option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 67(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 68.It Fl L 69If the 70.Fl R 71option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 72.It Fl P 73If the 74.Fl R 75option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 76.It Fl R 77Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted 78in the files instead of just the files themselves. 79.It Fl f 80Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 81the exit status to reflect such failures. 82.El 83.Pp 84Symbolic links don't have owners, so unless the 85.Fl H 86or 87.Fl L 88option is set, 89.Nm chown 90on a symbolic link always succeeds and has no effect. 91The 92.Fl H , 93.Fl L 94and 95.Fl P 96options are ignored unless the 97.Fl R 98option is specified. 99In addition, these options override each other and the 100command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 101.Pp 102The 103.Ar owner 104and 105.Ar group 106operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 107If the 108.Ar group 109operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 110.Pp 111The 112.Ar owner 113may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 114If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 115user name. 116The 117.Ar group 118may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 119If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 120group name. 121.Pp 122The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 123obvious security reasons. 124.Pp 125The 126.Nm chown 127utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. 128.Sh COMPATIBILITY 129Previous versions of the 130.Nm chown 131utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 132This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 133group names may contain the dot character. 134.Pp 135Previous versions of the 136.Nm chown 137utility changed the owner of symbolic links specified on the command 138line. 139In this system, symbolic links do not have owners. 140.Sh SEE ALSO 141.Xr chgrp 1 , 142.Xr find 1 , 143.Xr chown 2 , 144.Xr fts 3 , 145.Xr symlink 7 146.Sh STANDARDS 147The 148.Nm chown 149command is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compliant. 150