Description

Change file owner and group. Only executable with root permissions.

Syntax

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

Practical uses

• chown user: <file>: Change ownership to the user and their default group.
• chown -c: Like verbose, but report only when a change is made.
• chown --reference=RFILE: Copy the ownership from a reference file.
• chown -R: Operate on files and directories recursively.