05-13-2009
For security reasons only root can use chown and chgrp. Else you could write a program with malicious code, chown/chgrp it to somebody else, maybe root or whoever and try to get it executed by those. So no chown/chgrp for normal users. I have no appropriate line from IBM at hand, but usually it is on many types of systems like this.
From Sun Admin documentation for example:
Quote:
Restrictions
On most systems, the use of the chown and chgrp commands is restricted for non-privileged users. If you are not the administrator of the system, you can not change user nor group ownerships for security reasons. If the usage of these commands would not be restricted, malicious users could assign ownership of files to other users and/or groups and change behavior of those users' environments and even cause damage to other users' files.
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chown(8) System Manager's Manual chown(8)
Name
chown - change owner and, optionally, group
Syntax
/etc/chown [ -fR ] owner[.group] file...
Description
The command changes the owner and, optionally, group for one or more files and directories. The value for file can be a full or partial
path. The value for owner can be either a decimal UID or a login name found in the password file. The value for group can be either a
decimal GID or a group name found in the group file.
Only the superuser can change the ownership of a file. The superuser can also change the group of a file. The owner of a file can only
change the group, but the owner must be a member of any group specified.
Options
-f Inhibits display of errors that are returned when cannot change the owner or group of the specified files.
-R Causes to recursively descend any directories subordinate to file and to set the owner, group, or both for each file encountered.
When symbolic links are encountered, changes the owner and group for the link file itself but does not traverse the path associated
with the link. The option is useful only when file is a directory that is not empty.
Examples
Change the owner of to ecbell:
/etc/chown ecbell myfile
Change the owner of to craig and group of to admin:
/etc/chown craig.admin myfile
Change the owner to richart and group to eng for the directories and and for all files and directories on any levels subordinate to and
/etc/chown -R richart.eng projecta projectb
Files
See Also
chgrp(1), chown(2), group(5), group(5yp), passwd(5), passwd(5yp)
chown(8)