chown - Change Ownership in Linux
From the Linux Essential Commands cheat sheet · File Permissions & Ownership · verified Jul 2026
chown - Change Ownership
Change file owner and group
bash
# Change owner
sudo chown username file.txt
# Change owner and group
sudo chown username:groupname file.txt
# Change only group
sudo chown :groupname file.txt
# Recursive
sudo chown -R username:groupname directory/✅ Requires sudo for files you do not own
💡 Use colon (:) to specify group
🔍 -R changes ownership recursively in directories
ownershippermissionssudo
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