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.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd March 31, 1994 36.Dt CHOWN 8 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm chown 40.Nd change file owner and group 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl fhv 44.Oo 45.Fl R 46.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 47.Oc 48.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 49.Ar 50.Nm 51.Op Fl fhv 52.Oo 53.Fl R 54.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 55.Oc 56.No : Ns Ar group 57.Ar 58.Sh DESCRIPTION 59.Nm Chown 60changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 61Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 62.Op Fl h 63is used. 64.Pp 65The options are as follows: 66.Bl -tag -width Ds 67.It Fl H 68If the 69.Fl R 70option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 71(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 72.It Fl L 73If the 74.Fl R 75option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 76.It Fl P 77If the 78.Fl R 79option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 80This is the default. 81.It Fl R 82Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted 83in the files instead of just the files themselves. 84.It Fl f 85Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 86the exit status to reflect such failures. 87.It Fl h 88If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 89group ID of the link itself. 90.It Fl v 91Cause 92.Nm 93to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 94.El 95.Pp 96The 97.Fl H , 98.Fl L 99and 100.Fl P 101options are ignored unless the 102.Fl R 103option is specified. 104In addition, these options override each other and the 105command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 106.Pp 107The 108.Ar owner 109and 110.Ar group 111operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 112If the 113.Ar group 114operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 115.Pp 116The 117.Ar owner 118may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 119If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 120user name. 121The 122.Ar group 123may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 124If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 125group name. 126.Pp 127The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 128obvious security reasons. 129.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 130.Ex -std 131.Sh COMPATIBILITY 132Previous versions of the 133.Nm 134utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 135This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 136group names may contain the dot character. 137.Pp 138On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 139owners. 140.Pp 141The 142.Fl v 143option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 144.Sh SEE ALSO 145.Xr chgrp 1 , 146.Xr find 1 , 147.Xr chown 2 , 148.Xr fts 3 , 149.Xr symlink 7 150.Sh STANDARDS 151The 152.Nm 153command is expected to be 154.St -p1003.2 155compliant. 156.Sh HISTORY 157A 158.Nm 159command appeared in 160.At v1 . 161