# chgrp

## PROLOG



           This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
           Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
           corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
           the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
    


## NAME



           chgrp — change the file group ownership
    


## SYNOPSIS



           chgrp **[** -h**]**_group file_...
    
           chgrp -R **[** -H|-L|-P**]**_group file_...
    


## DESCRIPTION



           The _chgrp_ utility shall set the group ID of the file named by each
           _file_ operand to the group ID specified by the _group_ operand.
    
           For each _file_ operand, or, if the **-R** option is used, each file
           encountered while walking the directory trees specified by the
           _file_ operands, the _chgrp_ utility shall perform actions equivalent
           to the _chown_() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
           POSIX.1‐2017, called with the following arguments:
    
            *  The _file_ operand shall be used as the _path_ argument.
    
            *  The user ID of the file shall be used as the _owner_ argument.
    
            *  The specified group ID shall be used as the _group_ argument.
    
           Unless _chgrp_ is invoked by a process with appropriate privileges,
           the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of a regular file shall be
           cleared upon successful completion; the set-user-ID and set-group-
           ID bits of other file types may be cleared.
    


## OPTIONS



           The _chgrp_ utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
           POSIX.1‐2017, _Section 12.2_ , _Utility Syntax Guidelines_.
    
           The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
    
           **-h** For each _file_ operand that names a file of type symbolic
                     link, _chgrp_ shall attempt to set the group ID of the
                     symbolic link instead of the file referenced by the
                     symbolic link.
    
           **-H** If the **-R** option is specified and a symbolic link
                     referencing a file of type directory is specified on the
                     command line, _chgrp_ shall change the group of the
                     directory referenced by the symbolic link and all files
                     in the file hierarchy below it.
    
           **-L** If the **-R** option is specified and a symbolic link
                     referencing a file of type directory is specified on the
                     command line or encountered during the traversal of a
                     file hierarchy, _chgrp_ shall change the group of the
                     directory referenced by the symbolic link and all files
                     in the file hierarchy below it.
    
           **-P** If the **-R** option is specified and a symbolic link is
                     specified on the command line or encountered during the
                     traversal of a file hierarchy, _chgrp_ shall change the
                     group ID of the symbolic link. The _chgrp_ utility shall
                     not follow the symbolic link to any other part of the
                     file hierarchy.
    
           **-R** Recursively change file group IDs. For each _file_ operand
                     that names a directory, _chgrp_ shall change the group of
                     the directory and all files in the file hierarchy below
                     it. Unless a **-H** , **-L** , or **-P** option is specified, it is
                     unspecified which of these options will be used as the
                     default.
    
           Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options **-H** , **-L** ,
           and **-P** shall not be considered an error. The last option specified
           shall determine the behavior of the utility.
    


## OPERANDS



           The following operands shall be supported:
    
           _group_     A group name from the group database or a numeric group
                     ID. Either specifies a group ID to be given to each file
                     named by one of the _file_ operands. If a numeric _group_
                     operand exists in the group database as a group name,
                     the group ID number associated with that group name is
                     used as the group ID.
    
           _file_      A pathname of a file whose group ID is to be modified.
    


## STDIN



           Not used.
    


## INPUT FILES



           None.
    


## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES



           The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
           _chgrp_ :
    
           _LANG_      Provide a default value for the internationalization
                     variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
                     Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, _Section 8.2_ ,
                     _Internationalization Variables_ for the precedence of
                     internationalization variables used to determine the
                     values of locale categories.)
    
           _LC_ALL_    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
                     of all the other internationalization variables.
    
           _LC_CTYPE_  Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences
                     of bytes of text data as characters (for example,
                     single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in
                     arguments).
    
           _LC_MESSAGES_
                     Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
                     format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
                     standard error.
    
           _NLSPATH_   Determine the location of message catalogs for the
                     processing of _LC_MESSAGES_.
    


## ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS



           Default.
    


## STDOUT



           Not used.
    


## STDERR



           The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
    


## OUTPUT FILES



           None.
    


## EXTENDED DESCRIPTION



           None.
    


## EXIT STATUS



           The following exit values shall be returned:
    
            0    The utility executed successfully and all requested changes
                 were made.
    
           >0    An error occurred.
    


## CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS



           Default.
    
           _The following sections are informative._
    


## APPLICATION USAGE



           Only the owner of a file or the user with appropriate privileges
           may change the owner or group of a file.
    
           Some implementations restrict the use of _chgrp_ to a user with
           appropriate privileges when the _group_ specified is not the
           effective group ID or one of the supplementary group IDs of the
           calling process.
    


## EXAMPLES



           None.
    


## RATIONALE



           The System V and BSD versions use different exit status codes.
           Some implementations used the exit status as a count of the number
           of errors that occurred; this practice is unworkable since it can
           overflow the range of valid exit status values. The standard
           developers chose to mask these by specifying only 0 and >0 as exit
           values.
    
           The functionality of _chgrp_ is described substantially through
           references to _chown_().  In this way, there is no duplication of
           effort required for describing the interactions of permissions,
           multiple groups, and so on.
    


## FUTURE DIRECTIONS



           None.
    


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