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CHGRP(1) General Commands Manual CHGRP(1)

chgrp — change group

chgrp [-fhnvx] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] group file ...

The chgrp utility sets the group ID of the file named by each file operand to the group ID specified by the group operand.

The following options are available:

If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed and hence unaffected by the command. (Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.)
If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
If the -R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. This is the default. Use -h to change the group ID of a symbolic link.
Change the group ID of the file hierarchies rooted in the files, instead of just the files themselves. Beware of unintentionally matching the “..” hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like “.*”.
The force option ignores errors, except for usage errors and does not query about strange modes (unless the user does not have proper permissions).
If the file is a symbolic link, the group ID of the link itself is changed rather than the file that is pointed to.
Interpret the group ID as numeric, avoiding the name lookup.
Cause chgrp to be verbose, showing files as the group is modified. If the -v flag is specified more than once, chgrp will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric group ID.
File system mount points are not traversed.

The -H, -L and -P options are ignored unless the -R option is specified. In addition, these options override each other and the command's actions are determined by the last one specified.

The group operand can be either a group name from the group database, or a numeric group ID. If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a group name.

The user invoking chgrp must belong to the specified group and be the owner of the file, or be the super-user.

If chgrp receives a SIGINFO signal (see the status argument for stty(1)), then the current filename as well as the old and new group names are displayed.

/etc/group
group ID file

The chgrp utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

In previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have groups.

The -v and -x options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended.

chown(2), fts(3), group(5), passwd(5), symlink(7), chown(8)

The chgrp utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

January 7, 2017 macOS