chown(1)							   User Commands							  chown(1)

NAME

       chown - change file ownership

SYNOPSIS

       chown [-fhR] owner[:group] file...

       chown -R [-f] [-H | -L | -P]  owner[:group] file...

DESCRIPTION

       The  chown utility sets the user ID of the file named by each file to the user ID specified by owner, and, optionally, sets the group ID to
       that specified by group.

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

       Only the owner of a file (or the super-user) can change the owner of that file.

       The operating system has a configuration option {_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED}, to restrict ownership changes. When this option is in effect the
       owner of the file is prevented from changing the owner ID of the file.  Only the super-user can arbitrarily change owner IDs whether or not
       this option is in effect. To set this configuration option, include the following line in /etc/system:

       set rstchown = 1

       To disable this option, include the following line in /etc/system:

       set rstchown = 0

       {_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED} is enabled by default. See system(4) and fpathconf(2).

OPTIONS

   /usr/bin/chown and /usr/xpg4/bin/chown
       The following options are supported:

       -f	Force. Does not report errors.

       -h	If the file is a symbolic link, this option changes the owner of the symbolic link. Without this option, the  owner  of  the  file
		referenced by the symbolic link is changed.

       -H	If  the  file specified on the command line is a symbolic link referencing a file of type directory, this option changes the owner
		of the directory referenced by the symbolic link and all the files in the file hierarchy below it. If a symbolic link  is  encoun-
		tered when traversing a file hierarchy, the owner of the target file is changed, but no recursion takes place.

       -L	If  the  file is a symbolic link, this option changes the owner of the file referenced by the symbolic link. If the file specified
		on the command line, or encountered during the traversal of the file hierarchy, is a symbolic link  referencing  a  file  of  type
		directory, then this option changes the owner of the directory referenced by the symbolic link and all files in the file hierarchy
		below it.

       -P	If the file specified on the command line or encountered during the traversal of a file hierarchy is a symbolic link, this  option
		changes the owner of the symbolic link. This option does not follow the symbolic link to any other part of the file hierarchy.

       Specifying  more  than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H, -L, or -P is not considered an error. The last option specified determines
       the behavior of chown.

   /usr/bin/chown
       The following options are supported:

       -R	Recursive. chown descends through the directory, and any subdirectories, setting the specified ownership ID as it proceeds. When a
		symbolic link is encountered, the owner of the target file is changed, unless the -h or -P option is specified. However, no recur-
		sion takes place, unless the -H or -L option is specified.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/chown
       The following options are supported:

       -R	Recursive. chown descends through the directory, and any subdirectories, setting the specified ownership ID as it proceeds. When a
		symbolic link is encountered, the owner of the target file is changed, unless the -h or -P option is specified. Unless the -H, -L,
		or -P option is specified, the -L option is used as the default mode.

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       owner[:group]	       A user ID and optional group ID to be assigned to file. The owner portion of this operand must be a user name  from
			       the  user  database  or	a numeric user ID. Either specifies a user ID to be given to each file named by file. If a
			       numeric owner exists in the user database as a user name, the user ID number associated with that user name is used
			       as  the user ID. Similarly, if the group portion of this operand is present, it must be a group name from the group
			       database or a numeric group ID. Either specifies a group ID to be given to each file. 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 path name of a file whose user ID is to be modified.

USAGE

       See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of chown when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Changing Ownership of All Files in the Hierarchy

       The following command changes ownership of all files in the hierarchy, including symbolic links, but not the targets of the links:

       example% chown -R -h owner[:group] file...

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of chown: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE,  LC_MES-
       SAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0	The utility executed successfully and all requested changes were made.

       >0	An error occurred.

FILES

       /etc/passwd     System password file

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

   /usr/bin/chown
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled. See NOTES.	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

   /usr/xpg4/bin/chown
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWxcu4			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled. See NOTES.	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       chgrp(1), chmod(1), chown(2), fpathconf(2), passwd(4), system(4), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)

NOTES

       chown is CSI-enabled except for the owner and group names.

SunOS 5.10							    21 Jun 2004 							  chown(1)