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 1.5 2005/08/01 01:49:18 swildner Exp $ 35.\" 36.Dd November 24, 2004 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 fhvR 45.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 46.Ar 47.Nm 48.Op Fl fv 49.Oo 50.Fl R 51.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 52.Oc 53.Ar owner Ns Op : Ns Ar group 54.Ar 55.Nm 56.Op Fl fhvR 57.No : Ns Ar group 58.Ar 59.Nm 60.Op Fl fv 61.Oo 62.Fl R 63.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P 64.Oc 65.No : Ns Ar group 66.Ar 67.Sh DESCRIPTION 68The 69.Nm 70utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. 71Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless 72.Fl h 73is used. 74.Pp 75The options are as follows: 76.Bl -tag -width Ds 77.It Fl H 78If the 79.Fl R 80option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed. 81(Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed.) 82.It Fl L 83If the 84.Fl R 85option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. 86.It Fl P 87If the 88.Fl R 89option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. 90This is the default. 91.It Fl R 92Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified directory trees 93(recursively, including their contents) and files. 94Beware of unintentionally matching the 95.Dq Pa ".." 96hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like 97.Dq Li ".*" . 98.It Fl f 99Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify 100the exit status to reflect such failures. 101.It Fl h 102If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the 103group ID of the link itself. 104.It Fl v 105Cause 106.Nm 107to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. 108If the 109.Fl v 110flag is specified more than once, 111.Nm 112will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric user/group ID. 113.El 114.Pp 115The 116.Fl H , 117.Fl L 118and 119.Fl P 120options are ignored unless the 121.Fl R 122option is specified. 123In addition, these options override each other and the 124command's actions are determined by the last one specified. 125.Pp 126The 127.Ar owner 128and 129.Ar group 130operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. 131If the 132.Ar group 133operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character. 134.Pp 135The 136.Ar owner 137may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. 138If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a 139user name. 140The 141.Ar group 142may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. 143If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a 144group name. 145.Pp 146The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for 147obvious security reasons. 148.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 149.Ex -std 150.Sh COMPATIBILITY 151Previous versions of the 152.Nm 153utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name. 154This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and 155group names may contain the dot character. 156.Pp 157On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have 158owners. 159.Pp 160The 161.Fl v 162option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended. 163.Sh SEE ALSO 164.Xr chgrp 1 , 165.Xr find 1 , 166.Xr chown 2 , 167.Xr fts 3 , 168.Xr symlink 7 169.Sh STANDARDS 170The 171.Nm 172utility conforms to 173.St -p1003.2 174and 175.St -p1003.1-2004 . 176.Pp 177The 178.No : Ns Ar group 179use is an extension to the standard. 180.Sh HISTORY 181A 182.Nm 183utility appeared in 184.At v1 . 185