1CHGRP(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual CHGRP(P)
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6 chgrp - change the file group ownership
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9 chgrp [-hR] group file ...
10 chgrp -R [-H | -L | -P ] group file ...
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15 The chgrp utility shall set the group ID of the file named by each file
16 operand to the group ID specified by the group operand.
17 For each file operand, or, if the -R option is used, each file encoun‐
19 tered while walking the directory trees specified by the file operands,
20 the chgrp utility shall perform actions equivalent to the chown() func‐
21 tion defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
22 called with the following arguments:
23 * The file operand shall be used as the path argument.
25 * The user ID of the file shall be used as the owner argument.
27 * The specified group ID shall be used as the group argument.
29 Unless chgrp is invoked by a process with appropriate privileges, the
31 set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of a regular file shall be cleared
32 upon successful completion; the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of
33 other file types may be cleared.
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36 The chgrp utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
37 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
38 The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
40 -h If the system supports group IDs for symbolic links, for each
42 file operand that names a file of type symbolic link, chgrp
43 shall attempt to set the group ID of the symbolic link instead
44 of the file referenced by the symbolic link. If the system does
45 not support group IDs for symbolic links, for each file operand
46 that names a file of type symbolic link, chgrp shall do nothing
47 more with the current file and shall go on to any remaining
48 files.
49 -H If the -R option is specified and a symbolic link referencing a
51 file of type directory is specified on the command line, chgrp
52 shall change the group of the directory referenced by the sym‐
53 bolic link and all files in the file hierarchy below it.
54 -L If the -R option is specified and a symbolic link referencing a
56 file of type directory is specified on the command line or
57 encountered during the traversal of a file hierarchy, chgrp
58 shall change the group of the directory referenced by the sym‐
59 bolic link and all files in the file hierarchy below it.
60 -P If the -R option is specified and a symbolic link is specified
62 on the command line or encountered during the traversal of a
63 file hierarchy, chgrp shall change the group ID of the symbolic
64 link if the system supports this operation. The chgrp utility
65 shall not follow the symbolic link to any other part of the file
66 hierarchy.
67 -R Recursively change file group IDs. For each file operand that
69 names a directory, chgrp shall change the group of the directory
70 and all files in the file hierarchy below it. Unless a -H, -L,
71 or -P option is specified, it is unspecified which of these
72 options will be used as the default.
73 Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H, -L, and
76 -P shall not be considered an error. The last option specified shall
77 determine the behavior of the utility.
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80 The following operands shall be supported:
81 group A group name from the group database or a numeric group ID.
83 Either specifies a group ID to be given to each file named by
84 one of the file operands. If a numeric group operand exists in
85 the group database as a group name, the group ID number associ‐
86 ated with that group name is used as the group ID.
87 file A pathname of a file whose group ID is to be modified.
89
92 Not used.
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95 None.
96
98 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
99 chgrp:
100 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
102 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
103 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
104 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
105 to determine the values of locale categories.)
106 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
108 the other internationalization variables.
109 LC_CTYPE
111 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
112 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
113 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
114 LC_MESSAGES
116 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
117 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
118 NLSPATH
120 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
121 LC_MESSAGES .
122
125 Default.
126
128 Not used.
129
131 The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
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134 None.
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137 None.
138
140 The following exit values shall be returned:
141 0 The utility executed successfully and all requested changes were
143 made.
144 >0 An error occurred.
146
149 Default.
150 The following sections are informative.
152
154 Only the owner of a file or the user with appropriate privileges may
155 change the owner or group of a file.
156 Some implementations restrict the use of chgrp to a user with appropri‐
158 ate privileges when the group specified is not the effective group ID
159 or one of the supplementary group IDs of the calling process.
160
162 None.
163
165 The System V and BSD versions use different exit status codes. Some
166 implementations used the exit status as a count of the number of errors
167 that occurred; this practice is unworkable since it can overflow the
168 range of valid exit status values. The standard developers chose to
169 mask these by specifying only 0 and >0 as exit values.
170 The functionality of chgrp is described substantially through refer‐
172 ences to chown(). In this way, there is no duplication of effort
173 required for describing the interactions of permissions, multiple
174 groups, and so on.
175
177 None.
178
180 chmod() , chown() , the System Interfaces volume of
181 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, chown()
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184 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
185 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
186 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
187 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
188 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
189 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
190 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
191 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
192 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
193IEEE/The Open Group 2003 CHGRP(P)