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 59The 60.Nm 61utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 62Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 63.Fl h 64is used. 65.Pp 66The options are as follows: 67.Bl -tag -width Ds 68.It Fl H 69If the 70.Fl R 71option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 72(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 73.It Fl L 74If the 75.Fl R 76option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 77.It Fl P 78If the 79.Fl R 80option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 81This is the default. 82.It Fl R 83Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted 84in the files instead of just the files themselves. 85.It Fl f 86Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 87the exit status to reflect such failures. 88.It Fl h 89If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 90group ID of the link itself. 91.It Fl v 92Cause 93.Nm 94to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 95.El 96.Pp 97The 98.Fl H , 99.Fl L 100and 101.Fl P 102options are ignored unless the 103.Fl R 104option is specified. 105In addition, these options override each other and the 106command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 107.Pp 108The 109.Ar owner 110and 111.Ar group 112operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 113If the 114.Ar group 115operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 116.Pp 117The 118.Ar owner 119may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 120If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 121user name. 122The 123.Ar group 124may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 125If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 126group name. 127.Pp 128The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 129obvious security reasons. 130.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 131.Ex -std 132.Sh COMPATIBILITY 133Previous versions of the 134.Nm 135utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 136This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 137group names may contain the dot character. 138.Pp 139On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 140owners. 141.Pp 142The 143.Fl v 144option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 145.Sh SEE ALSO 146.Xr chgrp 1 , 147.Xr find 1 , 148.Xr chown 2 , 149.Xr fts 3 , 150.Xr symlink 7 151.Sh STANDARDS 152The 153.Nm 154utility is expected to be 155.St -p1003.2 156compliant. 157.Sh HISTORY 158A 159.Nm 160utility appeared in 161.At v1 . 162