FSF                                                      CHOWN(1)

NAME
     chown - change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS
     chown [OPTION]... OWNER[:[GROUP]] FILE...
     chown [OPTION]... :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,
     according to its first non-option argument, which is  inter-
     preted as follows.  If only 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 user name is
     followed by a colon or dot 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 or dot  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 or dot and group are
     given, but the user name is omitted, only the group  of  the
     files  is  changed;  in  this  case, chown performs the same
     function as chgrp.

     Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to  OWNER  and/or
     GROUP.

     -c, --changes
          like verbose but report only when a change is made

     --dereference
          affect the referent of each symbolic link, rather  than
          the symbolic link itself

     -h, --no-dereference
          affect symbolic links instead of  any  referenced  file
          (available  only  on systems that can change the owner-
          ship of a symlink)

     --from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP
          change the owner and/or group 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.

     -f, --silent, --quiet
          suppress most error messages

     --reference=RFILE
          use RFILE's owner and group rather than  the  specified
          OWNER:GROUP values

chown (fileutils) 4.1Last change: April 2001                    1

FSF                                                      CHOWN(1)

     -R, --recursive
          operate on files and directories recursively

     -v, --verbose
          output a diagnostic for every file processed

     --help
          display this help and exit

     --version
          output version information and exit

     Owner is unchanged if missing.  Group is unchanged if  miss-
     ing,  but changed to login group if implied by a `:'.  OWNER
     and GROUP may be numeric as well as symbolic.

AUTHOR
     Written by David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
     Report bugs to <bug-fileutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright O 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     This is free software; see the  source  for  copying  condi-
     tions.   There  is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY
     or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO
     The full documentation for chown is maintained as a  Texinfo
     manual.   If  the  info  and  chown  programs  are  properly
     installed at your site, the command

          info chown

     should give you access to the complete manual.

chown (fileutils) 4.1Last change: April 2001                    2