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: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.10.2.7 2003/03/12 22:08:13 trhodes Exp $ 30.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/chown/chown.8,v 1.5 2005/08/01 01:49:18 swildner Exp $ 31.\" 32.Dd November 24, 2004 33.Dt CHOWN 8 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm chown 37.Nd change file owner and group 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl fhvR 41.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 42.Ar 43.Nm 44.Op Fl fv 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 fhvR 53.No : Ns Ar group 54.Ar 55.Nm 56.Op Fl fv 57.Oo 58.Fl R 59.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 60.Oc 61.No : Ns Ar group 62.Ar 63.Sh DESCRIPTION 64The 65.Nm 66utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 67Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 68.Fl h 69is used. 70.Pp 71The options are as follows: 72.Bl -tag -width Ds 73.It Fl H 74If the 75.Fl R 76option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 77(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 78.It Fl L 79If the 80.Fl R 81option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 82.It Fl P 83If the 84.Fl R 85option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 86This is the default. 87.It Fl R 88Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified directory trees 89(recursively, including their contents) and files. 90Beware of unintentionally matching the 91.Dq Pa ".." 92hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 93.Dq Li ".*" . 94.It Fl f 95Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 96the exit status to reflect such failures. 97.It Fl h 98If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 99group ID of the link itself. 100.It Fl v 101Cause 102.Nm 103to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 104If the 105.Fl v 106flag is specified more than once, 107.Nm 108will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric user/group ID. 109.El 110.Pp 111The 112.Fl H , 113.Fl L 114and 115.Fl P 116options are ignored unless the 117.Fl R 118option is specified. 119In addition, these options override each other and the 120command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 121.Pp 122The 123.Ar owner 124and 125.Ar group 126operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 127If the 128.Ar group 129operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 130.Pp 131The 132.Ar owner 133may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 134If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 135user name. 136The 137.Ar group 138may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 139If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 140group name. 141.Pp 142The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 143obvious security reasons. 144.Sh EXIT STATUS 145.Ex -std 146.Sh COMPATIBILITY 147Previous versions of the 148.Nm 149utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 150This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 151group names may contain the dot character. 152.Pp 153On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 154owners. 155.Pp 156The 157.Fl v 158option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 159.Sh SEE ALSO 160.Xr chgrp 1 , 161.Xr find 1 , 162.Xr chown 2 , 163.Xr fts 3 , 164.Xr symlink 7 165.Sh STANDARDS 166The 167.Nm 168utility conforms to 169.St -p1003.2 170and 171.St -p1003.1-2004 . 172.Pp 173The 174.No : Ns Ar group 175use is an extension to the standard. 176.Sh HISTORY 177A 178.Nm 179utility appeared in 180.At v1 . 181