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CHOWN(1)                                                              CHOWN(1)



NAME
       chown - change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS
       chown[options] user[:group] file...

       POSIX options: [-R][--]

       GNU   options   (shortest  form):  [-cfhvR][--dereference][--refer-
       ence=rfile][--help][--version][--]

DESCRIPTION
       chown changes the user and/or group ownership of  each  given  file  as
       specified  by  the first non-option argument 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 and a group name (or numeric  group  ID),  with  no
       spaces  between  them,  the  group ownership of the files is changed as
       well.

GNUDETAILS
       The GNU version allows a dot instead of a colon (following BSD).  [This
       was  not  allowed  by  POSIX since a dot is a valid character in a user
       name.]  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.

POSIXOPTIONS
       -R     Recursively change ownership of directories and their  contents.

       --     Terminate option list.

GNUOPTIONS
       -c,--changes
              Verbosely  describe  the  action  for  each file whose ownership
              actually changes.

       -f,--silent,--quiet
              Do not print error messages about files whose  ownership  cannot
              be changed.

       -h,--no-dereference
              Act  on symbolic links themselves instead of what they point to.
              Only available if the lchown system call is provided.

       -v,--verbose
              Verbosely describe the action (or non-action)  taken  for  every
              file.

       -R,--recursive
              Recursively  change ownership of directories and their contents.

       --dereference
              Change the ownership of the target of a symbolic link instead of
              the symbolic link itself.  (New in fileutils-4.0.)

       --reference=rfile
              (New in fileutils 4.0.)  Change the ownership of file to that of
              rfile.

GNUSTANDARDOPTIONS
       --help Print a usage message on standard output and exit  successfully.

       --version
              Print version information on standard output, then exit success-
              fully.

       --     Terminate option list.

ENVIRONMENT
       The variables LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE and  LC_MESSAGES  have  the  usual
       meaning.

CONFORMINGTO
       POSIX  1003.2  does  not allow use of the dot as separator between user
       name and group name.

NOTES
       This page describes chown as found in the fileutils-4.0 package;  other
       versions  may  differ  slightly.   Mail  corrections  and  additions to
       aebcwi.nl.    Report   bugs   in    the    program    to    fileutils-
       bugsgnu.edu.



GNU fileutils 4.0                   1998-11                           CHOWN(1)