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32 .\" @(#)chown.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/31/94
33 .\" $Id: chown.8,v 1.5 1997/03/31 13:03:47 peter Exp $
40 .Nd change file owner and group
45 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
49 .Ar owner Op Ar :group
54 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
62 sets the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files.
64 The options are as follows:
69 option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.
70 (Symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed).
74 option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
78 option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.
80 Change the user ID and/or the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted
81 in the files instead of just the files themselves.
83 Don't report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify
84 the exit status to reflect such failures.
86 If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the group ID
87 of the link itself rather than the file that the link points to.
95 options are ignored unless the
98 In addition, these options override each other and the
99 command's actions are determined by the last one specified.
105 operands are both optional, however, one must be specified.
108 operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (``:'') character.
112 may be either a numeric user ID or a user name.
113 If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a
117 may be either a numeric group ID or a group name.
118 If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a
121 The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for
122 obvious security reasons.
126 utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
128 Previous versions of the
130 utility used the dot (``.'') character to distinguish the group name.
131 This has been changed to be a colon (``:'') character so that user and
132 group names may contain the dot character.
134 On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have
145 command is expected to be