| chown | |
|---|---|
 Example usage of chown command | |
| Original authors | Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie |
| Developer | AT&T Bell Laboratories |
| Initial release | November 3, 1971 (1971-11-03) |
| Operating system | Unix and Unix-like, IBM i |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Type | Command |
chown /ˈtʃoʊn/, short for change owner, is a shell command for changing the owning user of Unix-based file system files – including special files such as directories.
The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user (such as via sudo). A regular user cannot give away their ownership of a file.1
The version of chown bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.2
The command is available for Windows via UnxUtils.3 The command was ported to IBM i.4
See also
See also
- chgrp – Shell command for changing the group of a file
- chmod – Shell command for changing access permissions of a file
- List of POSIX commands
- takeown
References
References
- "BSD Man page for chown, March 31, 1994". Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
- – Linux User Manual – User Commands
- "Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities". unxutils.sourceforge.net. Archived from the original on 2006-02-09. Retrieved 2025-08-09.
- IBM. "IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell" (PDF). IBM. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
External links
External links
- – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 5 from The Open Group
- chown manual page
- The chown Command by The Linux Information Project (LINFO)