CHOWN
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 21 July 1993
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
chown, fchown - change ownership of a file
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int chown(const char *path, uid_t owner, gid_t group);
int fchown(int fd, uid_t owner, gid_t group);
DESCRIPTION
The owner of the file specified by
path
or by
fd
is changed. Only the super-user may change the owner of a file. The owner
of a file may change the group of the file to any group of which that owner
is a member. The super-user may change the group arbitrarily.
If the
owner
or
group
is specified as -1, then that ID is not changed.
RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and
errno
is set appropriately.
ERRORS
Depending on the file system, other errors can be returned. The more
general errors for
chown
are listed below:
- EPERM
-
The effective UID does not match the owner of the file, and is not zero; or
the
owner
or
group
were specified incorrectly.
- EROFS
-
The named file resides on a read-only file system.
- EFAULT
-
path
points outside your accessible address space.
- ENAMETOOLONG
-
path
is too long.
- ENOENT
-
The file does not exist.
- ENOMEM
-
Insufficient kernel memory was available.
- ENOTDIR
-
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
- EACCES
-
Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.
- ELOOP
-
path
contains a circular reference (i.e., via a symbolic link)
The general errors for
fchown
are listed below:
- EBADF
-
The descriptor is not value.
- ENOENT
-
See above.
- EPERM
-
See above.
- EROFS
-
See above.
NOTES
The prototype for
fchown
is only available if
__USE_BSD
is defined.
SEE ALSO
chmod(2), flock(2)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- NOTES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 12:25:51 GMT, March 22, 2025