Change ownership of file and directory in Linux through CLI

Change user and group ownership of a file

Syntax command as follow :

sudo chown user:group file.ext

Change user only without a group ownership of a file

Syntax command as follow :

sudo chown user: file.ext

I.e we want to change package.json file owned by root to user anonymous.

sudo chown anonymous package.json

Change user and group ownership of a directory.

Syntax command as follow :

sudo chown user:group directory

I.e we want to change package.json file owned by root and group by root to user anonymous and group by anonymous.

sudo chown anonymous:anonymous package.json

Change user and group ownership of a directory & sub-directory.

Syntax command as follow :

sudo chown -R user:group directory

I.e we want to change directory owned by root and group by root into user anonymous and group by anonymous recursively to all of its sub-directory (including files).

sudo chown -R anonymous:anonymous directory

The recursive switch -R used to make sure all child objects get the same ownership changes.

Delete directory, subdirectory and file owned by root

Syntax command as follow :

sudo rm -Rf directory_name

Example :

sudo rm -Rf node_modules

In the above example, the node_modules directory, along with all files and directories within that directory, would be deleted with no prompt or message.

Explanation :

sudo = root
rm = remove
-R = recurrsive
-f = force

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person. - Brene Brown