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 60sets the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 61.Pp 62The options are as follows: 63.Bl -tag -width Ds 64.It Fl H 65If the 66.Fl R 67option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 68(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 69.It Fl L 70If the 71.Fl R 72option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 73.It Fl P 74If the 75.Fl R 76option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 77This is the default. 78.It Fl R 79Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted 80in the files instead of just the files themselves. 81.It Fl f 82Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 83the exit status to reflect such failures. 84.It Fl h 85If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the group ID 86of the link itself rather than the file that the link points to. 87.It Fl v 88Cause 89.Nm 90to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 91.El 92.Pp 93The 94.Fl H , 95.Fl L 96and 97.Fl P 98options are ignored unless the 99.Fl R 100option is specified. 101In addition, these options override each other and the 102command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 103.Pp 104The 105.Ar owner 106and 107.Ar group 108operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 109If the 110.Ar group 111operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 112.Pp 113The 114.Ar owner 115may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 116If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 117user name. 118The 119.Ar group 120may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 121If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 122group name. 123.Pp 124The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 125obvious security reasons. 126.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 127.Ex -std 128.Sh COMPATIBILITY 129Previous versions of the 130.Nm 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 135On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 136owners. 137.Pp 138The 139.Fl v 140option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 141.Sh SEE ALSO 142.Xr chgrp 1 , 143.Xr find 1 , 144.Xr chown 2 , 145.Xr fts 3 , 146.Xr symlink 7 147.Sh STANDARDS 148The 149.Nm 150command is expected to be 151.St -p1003.2 152compliant. 153.Sh HISTORY 154A 155.Nm 156command appeared in 157.At v1 . 158