CHOWN(8,C) AIX Commands Reference CHOWN(8,C) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- chown PURPOSE Changes ownership of files or directories. SYNTAX +--------+ +----------+ +-----------+ chown ---| +----+ |--- owner ---|1 |---| file |---| +-| -f |-+ +- .group -+ ^ | directory | | ^| -R || | +-----------+ | |+----+| +---------------+ +------+ ----------------- 1 No space before this option. DESCRIPTION The chown command changes the owner of the specified files and directories to owner. The owner may be either a decimal user ID or a user name. An optional group may also be specified. The group may be either a decimal group ID or a group name Only the superuser can specify a change in ownership. FLAGS -f No errors are reported. -R Recursively descends through its directory arguments, setting the specified owner. When symbolic links are encountered, their ownership is changed, but they are not traversed. EXAMPLE chown tom program.c The user access permissions for "program.c" now apply to "tom". As the owner, "tom" can use the chmod command to permit or deny other users access to "program.c". See "chmod" for details. FILES /etc/passwd File that contains user IDs. Processed July 12, 1991 CHOWN(8,C) 1 CHOWN(8,C) AIX Commands Reference CHOWN(8,C) RELATED INFORMATION See the following commands: "passwd, chfn, chsh." See the chown and chownx system calls and the passwd file in AIX Operating System Technical Reference. See Chapter 18 of the AIX Programming Tools and Interfaces for general information on using commands in an MBCS environment. Processed July 12, 1991 CHOWN(8,C) 2