Bash chown Command - Change File Ownership

Using the chown Command

The chown command is used to change the ownership of files and directories in Unix-like operating systems.

It allows you to set which user and group own a file.

Syntax

The basic syntax of the chown command is:

chown [options] user[:group] file1 [file2 ...]

Options

The chown command has several options to customize its behavior:

• -R: Change files and directories recursively.
• -v: Output a diagnostic for every file processed.

Option: -R

The -R option allows you to change ownership for files and directories recursively. This is useful when you want to apply the same ownership to all files and subdirectories within a directory.

chown -R user:group /path/to/directory
changed ownership of 'file1' to user:group
changed ownership of 'file2' to user:group

Option: -v

The -v option provides verbose output, showing a diagnostic message for each file processed by the command.

chown -v user file.txt
changed ownership of 'file.txt' to user

Common Uses

The chown command is commonly used to:

• Transfer file ownership to another user.
• Set group ownership for shared files.
• Ensure that files have the correct ownership for security purposes.