chown(1bsd)

chown -- (BSD) change file owner

Synopsis

   /usr/ucb/chown [-fhR] owner[.group] file . . .

Description

chown changes the owner of the files to owner. The owner may be either a decimal user ID or a login name found in /etc/passwd file. The optional .group suffix may be used to change the group at the same time.

If chown is invoked by other than the super-user, the set-user-ID bit of the file mode, 04000, is cleared.

Only the super-user may change the owner of a file.

Valid options to chown are:

-f: Suppress error reporting
-h: If the file is a symbolic link, change the owner of the symbolic link. Without this option, the owner of the file referenced by the symbolic link is changed.
-R: Descend recursively through directories setting the ownership ID of all files in each directory entered.

Files

/etc/group
/etc/passwd

References

chgrp(1), chmod(1), chown(2), passwd(4)