---
tags: [permissions, Linux]
created: Friday, April 11, 2025
---

# chown

Change the owner of system files and directories.

Basic syntax: `chown <owner:group> filename`.

```sh
# Change file owner
chown user1 doc.txt

# Change owner and group
chown user1:developers document.txt

# Change only the group
chown :staff shared_folder/

# Do so recursively for dirs
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/
```

TODO: Partition into separate entry on groups:

> When a user account in Linux is created the system also creates a group with
> the same name as the user (known as the _primary group_ or _user private
> group_).

Because of the above, you will often change owndership to yourself with:

```sh
chown thomas:thomas some_dir
```

See groups:

```sh
groups
# thomas realtime docker input wheel adb plugdev
```

When reassigning users and groups, it's safest to use the actual name. But each
user/group also has a numeric representation, corresponding to UID:GID.

The first regular, non-system user created on most Unix distributions is 1000
but this isn't universal. Likewise his group will be 1000.

See your UID/GID and the GIDs of the groups you're in:

```
$ id
uid=1000(thomas) gid=1000(thomas) groups=1000(thomas),959(realtime),966(docker),994(input),998(wheel),1001(adb),1002(plugdev)
```