LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux chown command

Change file ownership. Use elevated privileges only when needed.

GNU Coreutils

Syntax

Command form

chown [OPTION]... [OWNER][:[GROUP]] FILE...

7 options

Option	What it does
`OWNER`	Set the file owner; a user name or numeric ID may be used.
`OWNER:GROUP`	Set owner and group together.
`-R, --recursive`	Change ownership recursively.
`-h, --no-dereference`	Affect symbolic links rather than their targets (where supported).
`-c, --changes`	Report only files whose ownership changed.
`-v, --verbose`	Report every processed file.
`--reference=RFILE`	Copy owner and group from RFILE.

3 examples

Change file ownership. Use elevated privileges only when needed.

sudo chown user:group ./file

Set the owner and group of one file.

sudo chown alice:developers ./report.txt

Change ownership of a directory tree (review the path carefully).

sudo chown -R alice:developers ./project

Changing ownership usually needs administrator privileges. A recursive change can affect many files; verify the exact path before using -R.