chown

Updated

July 31, 2026

Overview

chown changes file owner and/or group. Often paired with chmod when fixing service data directories.

Syntax

chown [options] owner[:group] file...
chown [options] :group file...
chown [options] --reference=rfile file...

Common Options

Option	Description
`-R`	Recursive
`-h`	Affect symlink itself, not target
`-v` / `-c`	Verbose / only when changed
`--from=o:g`	Only if current owner matches
`--preserve-root`	Do not recurse on `/`

Safety

Recursive chown on / or large trees can break a system. Prefer narrow paths. Preserve root with --preserve-root (default for recursive in modern coreutils).

Examples with Explanations

Owner and group

sudo chown alice file.txt
sudo chown alice:developers project/
sudo chown :developers file.txt      # group only
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/app

Numeric IDs

sudo chown 1000:1000 file.txt

Only if currently root-owned

sudo chown --from=root:root alice:alice file.txt

Reference

sudo chown --reference=good.txt bad.txt

Symlinks

sudo chown -h alice linkname

Notes

Names resolve via NSS (getent passwd); IDs work offline.
Sticky/setuid bits interact with ownership — know your security model.
ACLs (setfacl) may still grant access beyond owner/group/other.