.\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.50.1.
.TH CHGRP "1" "February 2026" "GNU coreutils 9.10" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
chgrp \- change group ownership
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B chgrp
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,GROUP FILE\/\fR...
.br
.B chgrp
[\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... \fI\,--reference=RFILE FILE\/\fR...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" Add any additional description here
.PP
Change the group of each FILE to GROUP.
With \fB\-\-reference\fR, change the group of each FILE to that of RFILE.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-c'\fB\-c, \-\-changes\fP\X'tty: link'
like verbose but report only when a change is made
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-f'\fB\-f, \-\-silent, \-\-quiet\fP\X'tty: link'
suppress most error messages
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-v'\fB\-v, \-\-verbose\fP\X'tty: link'
output a diagnostic for every file processed
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp--dereference'\fB\-\-dereference\fP\X'tty: link'
affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is
the default), rather than the symbolic link itself
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-h'\fB\-h, \-\-no\-dereference\fP\X'tty: link'
affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file;
useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp--from'\fB\-\-from=CURRENT_OWNER:CURRENT_GROUP\fP\X'tty: link'
change the ownership of each file only if its
current owner and/or group match those specified here.
Either may be omitted, in which case a match
is not required for the omitted attribute
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp--no-preserve-root'\fB\-\-no\-preserve\-root\fP\X'tty: link'
do not treat '/' specially (the default)
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp--preserve-root'\fB\-\-preserve\-root\fP\X'tty: link'
fail to operate recursively on '/'
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp--reference'\fB\-\-reference=RFILE\fP\X'tty: link'
use RFILE's ownership rather than specifying values.
RFILE is always dereferenced if a symbolic link.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-R'\fB\-R, \-\-recursive\fP\X'tty: link'
operate on files and directories recursively
.PP
The following options modify how a hierarchy is traversed when the \fB\-R\fR
option is also specified. If more than one is specified, only the final
one takes effect. \fB\-P\fR is the default.
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-H'\fB\-H\fP\X'tty: link'
if a command line argument is a symlink to a directory, traverse it
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-L'\fB\-L\fP\X'tty: link'
traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#chgrp-P'\fB\-P\fP\X'tty: link'
do not traverse any symbolic links
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/chgrp#chgrp--help'\fB\-\-help\fP\X'tty: link'
display this help and exit
.TP
\X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/chgrp#chgrp--version'\fB\-\-version\fP\X'tty: link'
output version information and exit
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
chgrp staff /u
Change the group of /u to "staff".
.TP
chgrp \-hR staff /u
Change the group of /u and subfiles to "staff".
.SH AUTHOR
Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs to: bug\-coreutils@gnu.org
.br
GNU coreutils home page:
.br
General help using GNU software:
.br
Report any translation bugs to
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later .
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBchown\fP(1), \fBchown\fP(2)
.PP
.br
Full documentation
.br
or available locally via: info \(aq(coreutils) chgrp invocation\(aq