chown

Change file owner and group.

#linux #permissions #administration #file-management

Basic Usage

Change the owner of a file.

chown [user] [file]

Change the owner and group of a file simultaneously.

chown [user]:[group] [file]

Change only the group of a file (similar to chgrp).

chown :[group] [file]

Recursively change owner and group for a directory.

chown -R [user]:[group] [directory]

Copy ownership details from one file to another.

chown --reference=reference_file.txt [file]

Change the ownership of the symbolic link itself, not the target file.

chown -h [user]:[group] [file]

Change owner only if the file is currently owned by a specific user.

chown --from=olduser:oldgroup [user]:[group] [file]

Change owner only if the file is currently owned by a specific user (keep group).

chown --from=olduser [user] [file]

Set ownership for web root to the web server user (e.g., Nginx/Apache).

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

Fix ownership for a user's home directory (e.g., after copying files as root).

chown -R [user]:[user] /home/[user]

Report only files that are actually changed.

chown -c [user]:[group] [file]