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.Dd August 24, 2022 29.Dt CHOWN 8 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm chown 33.Nd change file owner and group 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Nm 36.Op Fl fhvx 37.Oo 38.Fl R 39.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 40.Oc 41.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 42.Ar 43.Nm 44.Op Fl fhvx 45.Oo 46.Fl R 47.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 48.Oc 49.No : Ns Ar group 50.Ar 51.Sh DESCRIPTION 52The 53.Nm 54utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 55Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 56.Fl h 57is used. 58.Pp 59The options are as follows: 60.Bl -tag -width Ds 61.It Fl H 62If the 63.Fl R 64option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed 65and hence unaffected by the command. 66(Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.) 67.It Fl L 68If the 69.Fl R 70option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 71.It Fl P 72If the 73.Fl R 74option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 75This is the default. 76.It Fl R 77Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the file hierarchies rooted 78in the files, instead of just the files themselves. 79Beware of unintentionally matching the 80.Dq Pa ".." 81hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 82.Dq Li ".*" . 83.It Fl f 84Do not report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 85the exit status to reflect such failures. 86.It Fl h 87If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 88group ID of the link itself. 89.It Fl v 90Cause 91.Nm 92to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 93If the 94.Fl v 95flag is specified more than once, 96.Nm 97will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric user/group ID. 98.It Fl x 99File system mount points are not traversed. 100.El 101.Pp 102The 103.Fl H , 104.Fl L 105and 106.Fl P 107options are ignored unless the 108.Fl R 109option is specified. 110In addition, these options override each other and the 111command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 112.Pp 113The 114.Ar owner 115and 116.Ar group 117operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 118If the 119.Ar group 120operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 121.Pp 122The 123.Ar owner 124may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 125If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 126user name. 127The 128.Ar group 129may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 130If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 131group name. 132.Pp 133The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 134obvious security reasons. 135.Pp 136If 137.Nm 138receives a 139.Dv SIGINFO 140signal (see the 141.Cm status 142argument for 143.Xr stty 1 ) , 144then the current filename as well as the old and new file owner and group 145are displayed. 146.Sh EXIT STATUS 147.Ex -std 148.Sh COMPATIBILITY 149Previous versions of the 150.Nm 151utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 152This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 153group names may contain the dot character. 154.Pp 155On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 156owners. 157.Pp 158The 159.Fl v 160and 161.Fl x 162options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended. 163.Sh SEE ALSO 164.Xr chgrp 1 , 165.Xr chmod 1 , 166.Xr find 1 , 167.Xr chown 2 , 168.Xr fts 3 , 169.Xr symlink 7 170.Sh STANDARDS 171The 172.Nm 173utility is expected to be 174.St -p1003.2 175compliant. 176.Sh HISTORY 177A 178.Nm 179utility appeared in 180.At v1 . 181