This document is a Mac OS X manual page. Manual pages are a command-line technology for providing documentation. You can view these manual pages locally using the man(1) command. These manual pages come from many different sources, and thus, have a variety of writing styles.

For more information about the manual page format, see the manual page for manpages(5).

CHGRP(1)                  BSD General Commands Manual                 CHGRP(1)

NAME
     chgrp -- change group

SYNOPSIS
     chgrp [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] group file ...

DESCRIPTION
     The chgrp utility sets the group ID of the file named by each file operand to the group ID specified by
     the group operand.

     The following options are available:

     -f      The force option ignores errors, except for usage errors and doesn't query about strange modes
             (unless the user does not have proper permissions).

     -H      If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed.  (Symbolic
             links encountered in the tree traversal are not followed).

     -h      If the file is a symbolic link, the group ID of the link itself is changed rather than the file
             that is pointed to.

     -L      If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.

     -P      If the -R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed.  This is the default.

     -R      Change the group ID for the file hierarchies rooted in the files instead of just the files
             themselves.

     -v      Cause chgrp to be verbose, showing files as the group is modified.

     The -H, -L and -P options are ignored unless the -R option is specified.  In addition, these options
     override each other and the command's actions are determined by the last one specified.

     The group operand can be either a group name from the group database, or a numeric group ID.  If a
     group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a group name.

     The user invoking chgrp must belong to the specified group and be the owner of the file, or be the
     super-user.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The chgrp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

COMPATIBILITY
     In previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have groups.

     The -v option is non-standard and its use in scripts is not recommended.

FILES
     /etc/group  group ID file

SEE ALSO
     chown(2), fts(3), group(5), passwd(5), symlink(7), chown(8)

STANDARDS
     The chgrp utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

BSD                             March 31, 1994                             BSD