8.2 chgrp: Change group ownership

chgrp changes the group ownership of each given file to group (which can be either a group name or a numeric group id) or to the group of an existing reference file. Synopsis:

chgrp [option]... {group | --reference=ref_file} file...

The program accepts the following options. Also see 2. Common options.

`-c'

`--changes'

Verbosely describe the action for each file whose group actually changes.

`-f'

`--silent'

`--quiet'

Do not print error messages about files whose group cannot be changed.

`--dereference'

Do not act on symbolic links themselves but rather on what they point to.

`-h'

`--no-dereference'

Act on symbolic links themselves instead of what they point to. This is the default. This mode relies on the lchown system call. On systems that do not provide the lchown system call, chgrp fails when a file specified on the command line is a symbolic link. By default, no diagnostic is issued for symbolic links encountered during a recursive traversal, but see `--verbose'.

`--reference=ref_file'

Change the group of each file to be the same as that of ref_file. If ref_file is a symbolic link, do not use the group of the symbolic link, but rather that of the file it refers to.

`-v'

`--verbose'

Output a diagnostic for every file processed. If a symbolic link is encountered during a recursive traversal on a system without the lchown system call, and `--no-dereference' is in effect, then issue a diagnostic saying neither the symbolic link nor its referent is being changed.

`-R'

`--recursive'

Recursively change the group ownership of directories and their contents.