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. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 13.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 14.\" without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 26.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 27.\" 28.\" @(#)chown.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\" 31.Dd January 7, 2017 32.Dt CHOWN 8 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm chown 36.Nd change file owner and group 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Nm 39.Op Fl fhvx 40.Oo 41.Fl R 42.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 43.Oc 44.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 45.Ar 46.Nm 47.Op Fl fhvx 48.Oo 49.Fl R 50.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 51.Oc 52.No : Ns Ar group 53.Ar 54.Sh DESCRIPTION 55The 56.Nm 57utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 58Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 59.Fl h 60is used. 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 68and hence unaffected by the command. 69(Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.) 70.It Fl L 71If the 72.Fl R 73option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 74.It Fl P 75If the 76.Fl R 77option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 78This is the default. 79.It Fl R 80Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the file hierarchies rooted 81in the files, instead of just the files themselves. 82Beware of unintentionally matching the 83.Dq Pa ".." 84hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 85.Dq Li ".*" . 86.It Fl f 87Do not report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 88the exit status to reflect such failures. 89.It Fl h 90If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 91group ID of the link itself. 92.It Fl v 93Cause 94.Nm 95to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 96If the 97.Fl v 98flag is specified more than once, 99.Nm 100will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric user/group ID. 101.It Fl x 102File system mount points are not traversed. 103.El 104.Pp 105The 106.Fl H , 107.Fl L 108and 109.Fl P 110options are ignored unless the 111.Fl R 112option is specified. 113In addition, these options override each other and the 114command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 115.Pp 116The 117.Ar owner 118and 119.Ar group 120operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 121If the 122.Ar group 123operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 124.Pp 125The 126.Ar owner 127may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 128If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 129user name. 130The 131.Ar group 132may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 133If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 134group name. 135.Pp 136The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 137obvious security reasons. 138.Pp 139If 140.Nm 141receives a 142.Dv SIGINFO 143signal (see the 144.Cm status 145argument for 146.Xr stty 1 ) , 147then the current filename as well as the old and new file owner and group 148are displayed. 149.Sh EXIT STATUS 150.Ex -std 151.Sh COMPATIBILITY 152Previous versions of the 153.Nm 154utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 155This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 156group names may contain the dot character. 157.Pp 158On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 159owners. 160.Pp 161The 162.Fl v 163and 164.Fl x 165options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 166.Sh SEE ALSO 167.Xr chgrp 1 , 168.Xr find 1 , 169.Xr chown 2 , 170.Xr fts 3 , 171.Xr symlink 7 172.Sh STANDARDS 173The 174.Nm 175utility is expected to be 176.St -p1003.2 177compliant. 178.Sh HISTORY 179A 180.Nm 181utility appeared in 182.At v1 . 183