chown -- change ownership of files.
chown [-R [-H | -L | -P]] user[:group] file [files ...]
chown sets the ownership of files. The first argument after the options is either
a user, or a user-group pair, separated by a colon. If the group is given, group membership of the file is changed as well.
chown accepts the options described below. The options -L,
-H and -P are mutally exclusive, and only the last given option will be honoured. All
of -L, -H and -P require the
-R option to be set first.
- -R
-
Recurse into directories. Any directories are recursively traversed, and
all files and directories will change owner.
- -L
-
Follow symbolic links. By default, chown will not follow symbolic links. This is a potential dangerous option, as chown will not check for cycles. Be careful. This option requires the -R option to be set.
- -H
-
Follow symbolic links of command line files/directories only. This option
requires the -R option to be set.
- -P
-
Do not follow symbolic links at all. This option requires the -R option to be set.
The working of chown is not influenced by any environment variables.
chown can loop forever when symbolic links create cycles.
chown uses File::Find
to recurse.
$Log: chown,v $
Revision 1.1 1999/02/28 19:59:17 abigail
Initial revision
The Perl implementation of chown was written by Abigail, abigail@fnx.com.
This program is copyright by Abigail 1999.
This program is free and open software. You may use, copy, modify,
distribute and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you
wish, provided you do not restrict others to do the same.