usr/man/man2/chown.2

.TH CHOWN 2
.UC 4
.SH NAME
chown \- change owner and group of a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B chown(name, owner, group)
.B char *name;
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The file
whose name is given by the null-terminated string pointed
to by
.I name
has its
.I owner
and
.I group
changed as specified.
Only the super-user may
execute this call,
because if users were able to give files away,
they could defeat the (nonexistent)
file-space accounting procedures.
.PP
On some systems,
.I chown
clears the set-user-id bit
on the file
to prevent accidental creation of
set-user-id programs owned by the super-user.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
chown(1), passwd(5)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Zero is returned if the owner is changed;
\-1 is returned
on illegal owner changes.
.SH "ASSEMBLER (PDP-11)"
(chown = 16.)
.br
.B sys chown; name; owner; group