Ownership Permissions

In addition to modifying permissions on files, you can also modify the group and user ownership of the file as well.

Modify user ownership

$ sudo chown staff myfile

This command will set the owner of myfile to staff.

Modify group ownership

$ sudo chgrp whales myfile

This command will set the group of myfile to whales.

Modify both user and group ownership at the same time

If you add a colon and groupname after the user, you can set both the user and group at the same time.

$ sudo chown staff:whales myfile

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Exercise

Modify the group and user of some test files. Afterwards, take a look at the permissions with ls -l.

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Interactive Quiz

1. What command do you use to change user ownership?

chown
chmod
chgrp
Submit

2. Which command changes the group ownership of a file?

chgrp
chmod
ls
Submit

3. What command would you use to change both the user and group ownership of a file in one command?

chown user:group
chgrp user:group
chmod user:group
Submit

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Summary

• The chown command is used to change the user ownership of a file.
• The chgrp command is used to change the group ownership of a file.
• Both user and group ownership can be changed simultaneously using chown user:group.