


CHOWN(1L)						CHOWN(1L)


NNAAMMEE
       chown - change the user and group ownership of files

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
       cchhoowwnn  [-Rcfv]  [--recursive] [--changes] [--help] [--ver-
       sion] [--silent] [--quiet]  [--verbose]	[user][:.][group]
       file...

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       This  manual  page  documents  the  GNU	version of cchhoowwnn.
       cchhoowwnn changes the user  and/or  group  ownership	of  each
       given  file,  according	to its first non-option argument,
       which is interpreted 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,
       cchhoowwnn performs the same function as cchhggrrpp.

   OOPPTTIIOONNSS
       _-_c_, _-_-_c_h_a_n_g_e_s
	      Verbosely describe only files whose ownership actu-
	      ally changes.

       _-_f_, _-_-_s_i_l_e_n_t_, _-_-_q_u_i_e_t
	      Do not print error messages about files whose  own-
	      ership cannot be changed.

       _-_v_, _-_-_v_e_r_b_o_s_e
	      Verbosely describe ownership changes.

       _-_R_, _-_-_r_e_c_u_r_s_i_v_e
	      Recursively  change  ownership  of  directories and
	      their contents.

       _-_-_h_e_l_p Print a usage message and exit with a non-zero sta-
	      tus.

       _-_-_v_e_r_s_i_o_n
	      Print  version  information  on standard error then
	      exit.










FSF			GNU File Utilities			1


