chown

For the surname, see Chown (surname).

chown

The chown command
Original author(s)	Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie
Developer(s)	AT&T Bell Laboratories
Initial release	November 3, 1971 (1971-11-03)
Operating system	Unix and Unix-like, IBM i
Type	Command

The command chown /ˈtʃoʊn/, an abbreviation of change owner, is used on Unix and Unix-like operating systems to change the owner of file system files, directories. Unprivileged (regular) users who wish to change the group membership of a file that they own may use chgrp.

The ownership of any file in the system may only be altered by a super-user. A user cannot give away ownership of a file, even when the user owns it. Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file's group ID to that group.

The chown command has also been ported to the IBM i operating system.

Syntax

chown name_of_new_owner file_name

chown newuser:newgroup file_name

See also

• chgrp
• chmod
• takeown

External links

• chown – Commands & Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Issue 7 from The Open Group
• chown manual page
• The chown Command by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)