Format
chgrp [–fhR] group pathname
…
Description
chgrp sets
the group ID to group for the files and
directories named by the pathname arguments. group can
be a group name from a group database, or it can be a numeric group
ID (GID).
Rule: chgrp can
be used only by the file owner or a superuser. The file owner must
have the new group as his or her group or one of the supplementary
groups.
chgrp also turns off the
set-user-ID bit and set-group-ID bit of the named files and directories.
Options
- –f
- Does not issue an error message if chgrp cannot
change the group ID. In this case, chgrp always
returns a status of 0.
- –h
- Does not attempt to follow the symbolic link (or external link),
but instead makes changes to the symbolic link (or external link)
itself.
- –R
- If a pathname on the command line is
the name of a directory, chgrp changes the
group ID of all files and subdirectories in that directory. If chgrp cannot
change some file or subdirectory in the directory, it continues to
try to change the other files and subdirectories in the directory,
but exits with a nonzero status.
Localization
chgrp uses
the following localization environment variables:
- LANG
- LC_ALL
- LC_CTYPE
- LC_MESSAGES
- NLSPATH
See Localization for more
information.
Exit values
- 0
- You specified –f, or chgrp successfully
changed the group ownership of all the specified files and directories.
- 1
- Failure due to any of the following:
- Inability to access a specified file
- Inability to change the group of a specified file
- An unrecoverable error was encountered when you specified the –R option
- 2
- Failure due to any of the following:
- The command line contained an unknown option or too few arguments
- chgrp did not recognize the specified group
Portability
POSIX.2, X/Open Portability Guide, UNIX systems.
The –f and –h options
are an extension of the POSIX standard.
Related information
chmod, chown