file ownership: In Linux every file is owned by some user (account). The owner of a file can be set or changed using the chown command. The owner may (or may not) have permission to read, write, and/or execute the file.

In addition, read, write, and execute permissions can be set for two other entities, a group, and everyone (who has access to the system). Because of this, I sometimes (for lack of better terminology) refer to a file being "owned" by a group.

Groups of users can be created using the adduser command??. Which group "owns" a file can be set or modified using the chgrp command (or the chown command using the syntax chown <owner>.<group> <filename>).

See:

• chmod
• file ownership
• file ownership and permissions in Linux

Contributors

• RandyKramer - 02 Feb 2002
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