chown, chgrp an entire directoy and contents

gin1 · 07-28-2005, 03:50 PM

Is it possible to chown, chgrp and chmod an entire directory and all subdirectories and files in one fell swoop (or three)? If so, please point me to the right man page or "how to."

Matir · 07-28-2005, 04:11 PM

Code:

chown -R USER:GROUP DIRECTORY
chmod -R PERMS DIRECTORY

2

david_ross · 07-28-2005, 04:13 PM

Welcome to LQ.

Just add the "-R" option to your commands. You can chown and chgrp at once with:
chmod -R USER:GROUP /path/to/dir

gin1 · 07-28-2005, 04:32 PM

Thanks a ton! The -R worked just fine.

Matir · 07-28-2005, 04:43 PM

No problem. Just for future reference, "an entire directory and contents" is generally referred to as "recursive". In cases like this, you can use that and the man pages to avoid having to wait for replies from us.

gin1 · 07-28-2005, 04:47 PM

Thanks for the info. Waiting for answers from you all was quicker than wading through the book I finally located. Some idiot stole my RedHat manual!

Matir · 07-28-2005, 04:50 PM

LOL. Well, try wading through 'man chown', 'man chmod', etc.

I'm not criticizing you for coming here, just suggesting that you can save yourself some time in some cases.

steve407 · 09-03-2013, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matir

LOL. Well, try wading through 'man chown', 'man chmod', etc.

I'm not criticizing you for coming here, just suggesting that you can save yourself some time in some cases.

This (-R option) just does the /path/to/directory but NOT recursive to the root, correct? I RTFM but the discussion in the fine man page of recursive to root had me confused. Thanks in advance.

Steve

vipul_vaidya · 09-06-2013, 03:48 AM

Yes..
the easiest way is to give * with the command
ex-
#chmod perms *