chown

Change file owner and group.

Last updated: 2026-07-05 Report error

Syntax

$chown [USER][:GROUP] FILE

Examples

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

Examples

$chown john file.txt

Warnings

Caution: Wrong permissions can affect security or functionality

Tip: Use -R only when really needed

Shortcuts

chmod -R 755 /var/www (recursive for web directory)

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

Typical use cases

Web permissions

chmod 755 /var/www

Change owner

chown user:group file

Note Usually requires root privileges.

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