CHOWN(1)                       FSF                       CHOWN(1)

NAME
       chown - change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS
       chown [OPTION]... OWNER[.[GROUP]] FILE...
       chown [OPTION]... .GROUP FILE...
       chown [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  documents  the  GNU  version of chown.
       chown changes the user  and/or  group  ownership  of  each
       given  file,  according  to its first non-option argument,
       which is interpreted as follows.  If only a user name  (or
       numeric  user ID) is given, that user is made the owner of
       each given file, and the files' group is not changed.   If
       the  user  name  is followed by a colon or dot and a group
       name (or numeric group ID), with no spaces  between  them,
       the group ownership of the files is changed as well.  If a
       colon or dot but no group name follows the user name, that
       user  is  made the owner of the files and the group of the
       files is changed to that user's login group.  If the colon
       or  dot and group are given, but the user name is omitted,
       only the group of the files  is  changed;  in  this  case,
       chown performs the same function as chgrp.

       Change the owner and/or group of each FILE to OWNER and/or
       GROUP.

       -c, --changes
              be verbose whenever change occurs

       --dereference
              affect the referent of each symbolic  link,  rather
              than the symbolic link itself

       -h, --no-dereference
              affect  symbolic  links  instead  of any referenced
              file (available only on systems that can change the
              ownership of a symlink)

       -f, --silent, --quiet
              suppress most error messages

       --reference=RFILE
              use  the  owner and group of RFILE instead of using
              explicit OWNER.GROUP values

       -R, --recursive
              operate on files and directories recursively

       -v, --verbose
              explain what is being done

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       Owner is unchanged if  missing.   Group  is  unchanged  if
       missing,  but  changed  to  login  group  if  implied by a
       period.  A colon may replace the period.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to <bug-fileutils@gnu.org>.

SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for chown is maintained as  a  Tex-
       info  manual.  If the info and chown programs are properly
       installed at your site, the command

              info chown

       should give you access to the complete manual.

GNU fileutils 4.0         November 1998                         1