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chown(1)
NAME
  chown - Changes the owner of files or directories

SYNOPSIS
  chown [-fhR] owner[:group] file...

  The chown command changes the owner of the specified files or directories
  to the specified user name or user ID.

STANDARDS
  Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards
  as follows:

  chown:  XPG4, XPG4-UNIX

  Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about
  industry standards and associated tags.

OPTIONS
  -f  [DIGITAL]	 Turns off error reporting.

  -h  [DIGITAL]	 If file is a symbolic link, chown -h file changes the owner
      of the symbolic link. The chown file format changes the owner of the
      file referenced by the symbolic link.

  -R  Descends recursively through its directory arguments, setting the
      specified owner.

OPERANDS
  file
      The pathname of the file for which ownership is to be changed.

  owner[:group]
      A user ID and optional group ID to be assigned to file. The owner
      portion of this operand must be a user name from the user database or a
      numeric user ID. Either specifies a user ID to be given to each file
      named by one of the file operands. If a numeric owner operand exists in
      the user database as a user name, the user ID number associated with
      that user name will be used as the user ID.

      If the group portion of this operand is present, it must be a group
      name from the group database or a numeric group ID. Either specifies a
      group ID to be given to each file. If a numeric group operand exists in
      the group database as a group name, the group ID number associated with
      that group name will be used as the group ID.




DESCRIPTION
  [DIGITAL]  Only a user with superuser authority can use the chown command.


  The owner argument must be a valid user name or a valid numerical user ID.
  The optional group argument must be a valid group name or a valid numerical
  group ID.

EXIT STATUS
  The following exit values are returned:

  0   The chown command executed successfully and all requested changes have
      been made.

  >0  An error occurred.

EXAMPLES
  To change the owner of the file program.c, enter:

       chown  steffan  program.c

  The user access permissions for program.c now apply to steffan.  As the
  owner, steffan can use the chmod command to permit or deny the other users
  access to program.c. See the chmod command for details.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
  The following environment variables affect the execution of chown:

  LANG
      Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that
      are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value
      from the default locale is used.	If any of the internationalization
      variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of
      the variables had been defined.

  LC_ALL
      If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the
      other internationalization variables.

  LC_CTYPE
      Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
      text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
      multibyte characters in arguments).

  LC_MESSAGES
      Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic
      messages written to standard error.

  NLSPATH
      Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of
      LC_MESSAGES.

FILES
  /etc/passwd
      Contains user names and numeric user IDs.






SEE ALSO
  Commands:  chgrp(1), chmod(1), passwd(1)


  Functions:  chown(2), chmod(2)

  Files:  passwd(4)

  Standards:  standards(5)