chown
Cross-platform | |
Type | Command |
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The command chown /ˈtʃoʊn/, an abbreviation of change owner, is used on Unix and Unix-like operating systems to change the owner of file system files and directories. Unprivileged (regular) users who wish to change the group membership of a file that they own may use chgrp.
The ownership of any file in the system may only be altered by a super-user. A user cannot give away ownership of a file, even when the user owns it. Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file's group ID to that group.[1]
The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.[2] The chown command has also been ported to the IBM i operating system.[3]
See also
References
- ^ BSD Man page for chown, March 31, 1994
- ^ "Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities". unxutils.sourceforge.net.
- ^ IBM. "IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell" (PDF). IBM. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
External links
The Wikibook Guide to Unix has a page on the topic of: Commands
- The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group
– Shell and Utilities Reference,
- chown manual page
- The chown Command by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)