---
name: "uu-chown"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "uutils-coreutils"
version: "0.12.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/uu-chown"
---

# uu-chown(1)

Change file owner and group

## NAME

chown - Change file owner and group

## SYNOPSIS

**chown** \[OPTION\]... \[OWNER\]\[:\[GROUP\]\] FILE...\
 **chown** \[OPTION\]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

## DESCRIPTION

Change file owner and group

## OPTIONS

- **--help**

  Print help information.

- **-c**, **--changes**

  like verbose but report only when a change is made

- **--from** *\<CURRENT\_OWNER:CURRENT\_GROUP\>*

  change the owner and/or group of each file only if its current owner and/or group match those specified here. Either may be omitted, in which case a match is not required for the omitted attribute

- **--preserve-root**

  fail to operate recursively on '/'

- **--no-preserve-root**

  do not treat '/' specially (the default)

- **--quiet**

  suppress most error messages

- **-R**, **--recursive**

  operate on files and directories recursively

- **--reference** *\<RFILE\>*

  use RFILE's owner and group rather than specifying OWNER:GROUP values

- **-f**, **--silent**

  - **-v**, **--verbose**

  output a diagnostic for every file processed

- **-H**

  if a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it

- **-L**

  traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered

- **-P**

  do not traverse any symbolic links (default)

- **--dereference**

  affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is the default), rather than the symbolic link itself

- **-h**, **--no-dereference**

  affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink)

- **-V**, **--version**

  Print version

## VERSION

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0