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.\" 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 of the specified directory trees 84(recursively, including their contents) and files. 85Beware of unintentionally matching the 86.Dq Pa ".." 87hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 88.Dq Li ".*" . 89.It Fl f 90Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 91the exit status to reflect such failures. 92.It Fl h 93If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 94group ID of the link itself. 95.It Fl v 96Cause 97.Nm 98to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 99.El 100.Pp 101The 102.Fl H , 103.Fl L 104and 105.Fl P 106options are ignored unless the 107.Fl R 108option is specified. 109In addition, these options override each other and the 110command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 111.Pp 112The 113.Ar owner 114and 115.Ar group 116operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 117If the 118.Ar group 119operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 120.Pp 121The 122.Ar owner 123may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 124If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 125user name. 126The 127.Ar group 128may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 129If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 130group name. 131.Pp 132The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 133obvious security reasons. 134.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 135.Ex -std 136.Sh COMPATIBILITY 137Previous versions of the 138.Nm 139utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 140This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 141group names may contain the dot character. 142.Pp 143On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 144owners. 145.Pp 146The 147.Fl v 148option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 149.Sh SEE ALSO 150.Xr chgrp 1 , 151.Xr find 1 , 152.Xr chown 2 , 153.Xr fts 3 , 154.Xr symlink 7 155.Sh STANDARDS 156The 157.Nm 158utility is expected to be 159.St -p1003.2 160compliant. 161.Sh HISTORY 162A 163.Nm 164utility appeared in 165.At v1 . 166