# chown

## NAME



           chown - change file owner and group
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **chown**[_OPTION_]... [_OWNER_][_:_[_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.  If
           only an owner (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 owner 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.  If a colon 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 and group are given, but the owner is
           omitted, only the group of the files is changed; in this case,
           **chown** performs the same function as **chgrp**.  If only a colon is
           given, or if the entire operand is empty, neither the owner nor
           the group is changed.
    


## OPTIONS



           Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or GROUP.
           With **--reference** , change the owner and group of each FILE to those
           of RFILE.
    
           **-c** , **--changes**
                  like verbose but report only when a change is made
    
           **-f** , **--silent** , **--quiet**
                  suppress most error messages
    
           **-v** , **--verbose**
                  output a diagnostic for every file processed
    
           **--dereference**
                  affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is the
                  default), rather than the symbolic link itself
    
           **-h** , **--no-dereference**
                  affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file
                  (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a
                  symlink)
    
           **--from** =_CURRENT_OWNER_ :CURRENT_GROUP
                  change the ownership of each file only if its current owner
                  and/or group match those specified here. Either may be
                  omitted, in which case a match is not required for the
                  omitted attribute
    
           **--no-preserve-root**
                  do not treat '/' specially (the default)
    
           **--preserve-root**
                  fail to operate recursively on '/'
    
           **--reference** =_RFILE_
                  use RFILE's ownership rather than specifying values.  RFILE
                  is always dereferenced if a symbolic link.
    
           **-R** , **--recursive**
                  operate on files and directories recursively
    
           The following options modify how a hierarchy is traversed when the
           **-R** option is also specified.  If more than one is specified, only
           the final one takes effect. **-P** is the default.
    
           **-H** if a command line argument is a symbolic link to a
                  directory, traverse it
    
           **-L** traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered
    
           **-P** do not traverse any symbolic links
    
           **--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 ':' following a symbolic
           OWNER.  OWNER and GROUP may be numeric as well as symbolic.
    


## EXAMPLES



           chown root /u
                  Change the owner of /u to "root".
    
           chown root:staff /u
                  Likewise, but also change its group to "staff".
    
           chown -hR root /u
                  Change the owner of /u and subfiles to "root".
    


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