


CHOWN(1)                       FSF                       CHOWN(1)


NAME
       chown - change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS
       chown [OPTION]... OWNER[:[GROUP]] FILE...
       chown [OPTION]... :GROUP FILE...
       chown [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  documents  the  GNU  version of chown.
       chown changes the user  and/or  group  ownership  of  each
       given  file,  according  to its first non-option argument,
       which is interpreted as follows.  If only a user name  (or
       numeric  user ID) is given, that user is made the owner of
       each given file, and the files' group is not changed.   If
       the  user  name  is followed by a colon or dot and a group
       name (or numeric group ID), with no spaces  between  them,
       the group ownership of the files is changed as well.  If a
       colon or dot but no group name follows the user name, that
       user  is  made the owner of the files and the group of the
       files is changed to that user's login group.  If the colon
       or  dot and group are given, but the user name is omitted,
       only the group of the files  is  changed;  in  this  case,
       chown performs the same function as chgrp.

       Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or
       GROUP.

       -c, --changes
              like verbose but report only when a change is made

       --dereference
              affect the referent of each symbolic  link,  rather
              than the symbolic link itself

       -h, --no-dereference
              affect  symbolic  links  instead  of any referenced
              file (available only on systems that can change the
              ownership of a symlink)

       --from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP
              change  the owner and/or group of each file only if
              its current owner and/or group match  those  speci-
              fied  here.  Either may be omitted, in which case a
              match is not required for the omitted attribute.

       -f, --silent, --quiet
              suppress most error messages

       --reference=RFILE
              use RFILE's owner and group rather than the  speci-
              fied OWNER:GROUP values





chown (fileutils) 4.1       April 2002                          1





CHOWN(1)                       FSF                       CHOWN(1)


       -R, --recursive
              operate on files and directories recursively

       -v, --verbose
              output a diagnostic for every file processed

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       Owner  is  unchanged  if  missing.   Group is unchanged if
       missing, but changed to login group if implied by  a  `:'.
       OWNER and GROUP may be numeric as well as symbolic.

AUTHOR
       Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to <bug-fileutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       This  is  free software; see the source for copying condi-
       tions.  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY
       or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
       The  full  documentation for chown is maintained as a Tex-
       info manual.  If the info and chown programs are  properly
       installed at your site, the command

              info chown

       should give you access to the complete manual.






















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