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: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.10.2.7 2003/03/12 22:08:13 trhodes Exp $ 34.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:29:52 dillon Exp $ 35.\" 36.Dd March 31, 1994 37.Dt CHOWN 8 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm chown 41.Nd change file owner and group 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Fl fhv 45.Oo 46.Fl R 47.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 48.Oc 49.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 50.Ar 51.Nm 52.Op Fl fhv 53.Oo 54.Fl R 55.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 56.Oc 57.No : Ns Ar group 58.Ar 59.Sh DESCRIPTION 60The 61.Nm 62utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 63Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 64.Fl h 65is used. 66.Pp 67The options are as follows: 68.Bl -tag -width Ds 69.It Fl H 70If the 71.Fl R 72option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 73(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 74.It Fl L 75If the 76.Fl R 77option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 78.It Fl P 79If the 80.Fl R 81option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 82This is the default. 83.It Fl R 84Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified directory trees 85(recursively, including their contents) and files. 86Beware of unintentionally matching the 87.Dq Pa ".." 88hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 89.Dq Li ".*" . 90.It Fl f 91Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 92the exit status to reflect such failures. 93.It Fl h 94If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 95group ID of the link itself. 96.It Fl v 97Cause 98.Nm 99to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 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.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 136.Ex -std 137.Sh COMPATIBILITY 138Previous versions of the 139.Nm 140utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 141This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 142group names may contain the dot character. 143.Pp 144On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 145owners. 146.Pp 147The 148.Fl v 149option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 150.Sh SEE ALSO 151.Xr chgrp 1 , 152.Xr find 1 , 153.Xr chown 2 , 154.Xr fts 3 , 155.Xr symlink 7 156.Sh STANDARDS 157The 158.Nm 159utility is expected to be 160.St -p1003.2 161compliant. 162.Sh HISTORY 163A 164.Nm 165utility appeared in 166.At v1 . 167