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chgrp - change the file group ownership
chgrp [-hR] group file
...
chgrp -R [-H | -L | -P ] group file ...
The chgrp utility shall set the group ID of the file named
by each file operand to the group ID specified by the group operand.
For
each file operand, or, if the -R option is used, each file encountered while
walking the directory trees specified by the file operands, the chgrp utility
shall perform actions equivalent to the chown() function defined in the
System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, called with the following
arguments:
The file operand shall be used as the path argument.
The user
ID of the file shall be used as the owner argument.
The specified group
ID shall be used as the group argument.
Unless chgrp is invoked by a process
with appropriate privileges, the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of a regular
file shall be cleared upon successful completion; the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
bits of other file types may be cleared.
The chgrp utility shall
conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2,
Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported by the
implementation:
- -h
- If the system supports group IDs for symbolic links,
for each file operand that names a file of type symbolic link, chgrp shall
attempt to set the group ID of the symbolic link instead of the file referenced
by the symbolic link. If the system does not support group IDs for symbolic
links, for each file operand that names a file of type symbolic link, chgrp
shall do nothing more with the current file and shall go on to any remaining
files.
- -H
- If the -R option is specified and a symbolic link referencing a
file of type directory is specified on the command line, chgrp shall change
the group of the directory referenced by the symbolic link and all files
in the file hierarchy below it.
- -L
- If the -R option is specified and a symbolic
link referencing a file of type directory is specified on the command line
or encountered during the traversal of a file hierarchy, chgrp shall change
the group of the directory referenced by the symbolic link and all files
in the file hierarchy below it.
- -P
- If the -R option is specified and a symbolic
link is specified on the command line or encountered during the traversal
of a file hierarchy, chgrp shall change the group ID of the symbolic link
if the system supports this operation. The chgrp utility shall not follow
the symbolic link to any other part of the file hierarchy.
- -R
- Recursively
change file group IDs. For each file operand that names a directory, chgrp
shall change the group of the directory and all files in the file hierarchy
below it. Unless a -H, -L, or -P option is specified, it is unspecified which
of these options will be used as the default.
Specifying more than one of
the mutually-exclusive options -H, -L, and -P shall not be considered an error.
The last option specified shall determine the behavior of the utility.
The
following operands shall be supported:
- group
- A group name from the group
database or a numeric group ID. Either specifies a group ID to be given
to each file named by one of the file operands. If a numeric group operand
exists in the group database as a group name, the group ID number associated
with that group name is used as the group ID.
- file
- A pathname of a file
whose group ID is to be modified.
Not used.
None.
The following environment variables shall affect the execution
of chgrp:
- LANG
- Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization
variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
- LC_ALL
- If
set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
- LC_CTYPE
- Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences
of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed
to multi-byte characters in arguments).
- LC_MESSAGES
- Determine the locale
that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages
written to standard error.
- NLSPATH
- Determine the location of message catalogs
for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
Default.
Not
used.
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
None.
None.
The following exit
values shall be returned:
- 0
- The utility executed successfully and all
requested changes were made.
- >0
- An error occurred.
Default.
The following sections are informative.
Only the owner
of a file or the user with appropriate privileges may change the owner
or group of a file.
Some implementations restrict the use of chgrp to a
user with appropriate privileges when the group specified is not the effective
group ID or one of the supplementary group IDs of the calling process.
None.
The System V and BSD versions use different exit status codes.
Some implementations used the exit status as a count of the number of errors
that occurred; this practice is unworkable since it can overflow the range
of valid exit status values. The standard developers chose to mask these
by specifying only 0 and >0 as exit values.
The functionality of chgrp is
described substantially through references to chown(). In this way, there
is no duplication of effort required for describing the interactions of
permissions, multiple groups, and so on.
None.
chmod()
, chown() , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, chown()
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications
Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between
this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html
.
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