chown v/s chmod

justmovedtolinux · 10-02-2008, 06:16 AM

How different is the CHOWN command v/s the CHMOD command. As per my understanding - both of them are used to make changes to the ownership and privileges of the files.

Right?

ilikejam · 10-02-2008, 06:22 AM

chown changes _who_ owns files (change owner), chmod changes the access rights of those users (change mode, perhaps?).

Dave

Total-MAdMaN · 10-02-2008, 06:26 AM

chown changes which user and group owns a file/directory, chmod changes the rwx rights on a file/directory.

Nightfish · 10-02-2008, 06:43 AM

a file's permissions are separated in to 3 categories. one for the owner (witch can be modified by CHOWN), one for the group (also CHOWN) and one for the rest.
What CHMOD does is modify what permissions the owner, the group and the world have, while the CHOWN modifies the actual owner or group.
If I for example have created a file with no rights to the group and the rest, but full rights to the owner, and i CHOWN the file to another user, I will have no permissions on it.