How to change group ownership of a file in the Linux system?

How to change group ownership of a file in the Linux system?

In this article, we will learn to add groups, delete groups, and change the group ownership of a file, group of files, or directories.

We know that Linux is a multiuser operating system so every file or directory belongs to an owner and group. To change ownership of files or directories we use chown (change ownership) command and to change the group ownership of files or directories we use the chgrp command.

The chgrp (change group) command is used to change the group ownership of files or directories in the Linux/Unix operating system.

syntax
The general syntax of the chgrp command is as follow:

chgrp [OPTION]... GROUP FILE...

chgrp [OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

A brief description of options available in the chmod command:

Option		Description
1.	-c, --changes	Gives a diagnosis for all the files that actually changed.
2.	-f, --silent, --quite	It suppresses most of the error messages.
3.	-v, --verbose	Give a diagnosis for all the processed files.
4.	-R, --recursive	It changes file and directories recursively.
5.	--help	Displays a help message and then exit.
6.	--version	It gives info about the version and then exits.

 

 How to add a group in the Linux operating system using a terminal?

To add a group in the Linux system we need administrative permission or sudo privilege. If we want to add a new group, we use the addgroup command.

The general syntax of the addgroup command

$ sudo addgroup <group name>...

Suppose we have to add a new group snow in the Linux system using the terminal.

$ sudo addgroup snow

How to remove group in the Linux operating system using the terminal?

To remove a group in the Linux system we need administrative permission or sudo privilege. If we want to remove an existing group, we use the groupdel command.

The general syntax of the groupdel command

$ sudo groupdel <group name>...

 

Suppose we have to delete a existing group snow in the Linux system using the terminal.

$ sudo groupdel snow

After executing the above command the group snow will be deleted from the system. Before deleting, the group must be available otherwise error will be prompt.

 How to change the group ownership of a file using the chgrp command in the Linux system?

To change the group ownership of a file using terminal, we use the chgrp command in the Linux system

First, we will check that the file associated with which group. To check this use the below command.

$ ls -l <file name>

The below output a just an example output.

-rw-rw-r--  1 owner group 204800 Dec 28 14:04 file.txt

To change the group ownership of a file use the below command.

$ sudo chgrp snow file.txt

Conclusion: In this article, we learned to create a group, remove a group, change ownership of the group with available options in the chgrp (change group) command in the Linux system. To change ownership of files or directories the chown command is used in the Linux operating system.