How to Change File Ownership Group Ownership of a File In Linux

The following example shows a partial listing of the files in the root directory (/).

castle% cd /
castle% ls -la
total 140
drwxr-xr-x  31 root     root        1024 Sep 30 13:26 .
drwxr-xr-x  31 root     root        1024 Sep 30 13:26 ..
-rw-------   1 root     other        205 Sep 23 10:02 .Xauthority
-rw-------   1 root     root        1028 Oct  2 08:47 .cpr_config
-rw-rw-rw-   1 root     other         52 Sep 26 12:19 .cshrc
drwxr-xr-x  12 root     other        512 Sep 23 10:02 .dt
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     other       5111 Sep 11 10:21 .dtprofile
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         512 Sep 11 10:21 TT_DB
-rw-r--r--   1 root     other         11 Sep 24 14:46 awk
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           9 Sep 10 17:58 bin -> ./usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x   5 root     nobody       512 Oct  2 08:47 cdrom
drwxrwxr-x  18 root     sys         4096 Oct  2 08:46 dev
drwxrwxr-x   5 root     sys          512 Sep 10 18:38 devices
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         512 Sep 11 09:05 doe
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Changing File Ownership

Use the chown command to change file ownership. Only the owner of the file or superuser can change the ownership of a file. Use the following steps to change file ownership:

1.  If you are not the owner of the file or directory, become superuser.

2.  Type chown <username> <filename> and press Return.

3.  Type ls -l <filename> and press Return to verify that the owner of the file has changed.

You can change ownership on groups of files or on all of the files in a directory by using metacharacters such as * and ? in place of filenames or in combination with them.

You can change ownership recursively by use the chown -R option. When you use the -R option, the chown command descends through the directory and any subdirectories setting the ownership ID. If a symbolic link is encountered, the ownership is changed only on the target file itself.

The following example changes the ownership of the file local.cshrc from root to winsor:

castle% ls -l local.cshrc
-rw-r�r�   1 root     other        124 Sep 12 10:32 local.cshrc
castle% su
Password:
#chown winsor local.cshrc
#ls -l local.cshrc

-rw-r�r�   1 winsor   other        124 Sep 12 10:32 local.cshrc
#exit
castle%

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NOTE:  You can also change file ownership by specifying the UID number as the first argument to the chgrp command.

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Changing Group Ownership of a File

Only the owner of the file or superuser can change the group ownership of a file. Use the chgrp command to change group ownership of a file or directory:

1.  If you are not the owner of the file or directory, become superuser.

2.  Type chgrp <groupname> <filename> and press Return.

3.  Type ls -l <filename> and press Return to verify that the group owner of the file is changed.

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NOTE:  You can also change group ownership by specifying the group number as the first argument to the chgrp command.

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You can change group ownership on a set of files or on all of the files in a directory by using metacharacters such as * and ? in place of filenames or in combination with them.

You can change group ownership recursively by using the chgrp -R option. When you use the -R option, the chgrp command descends through the directory and any subdirectories setting the group ownership ID. If a symbolic link is encountered, the group ownership is changed only on the target file itself.

The following example changes the group ownership of the file local.cshrc from other to staff:

castle% ls -l local.cshrc
-rw-r�r�   1 winsor   other        124 Sep 12 10:32 local.cshrc
castle% chgrp staff local.cshrc
castle% ls -l local.cshrc
-rw-r�r�   1 winsor   staff        124 Sep 12 10:32 local.cshrc
castle%