chown

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

    chown — Changes file owner

    Description

    chown(string $filename, string|int $user): bool

    Attempts to change the owner of the file filename to user user. Only the superuser may change the owner of a file.

    Parameters

    filename

    Path to the file.

    user

    A user name or number.

    Return Values

    Returns true on success or false on failure.

    Examples

    Example #1 Simple chown() usage

    <?php

    // File name and username to use
    $file_name= "foo.php";
    $path = "/home/sites/php.net/public_html/sandbox/" . $file_name ;
    $user_name = "root";

    // Set the user
    chown($path, $user_name);

    // Check the result
    $stat = stat($path);
    print_r(posix_getpwuid($stat['uid']));

    ?>

    The above example will output something similar to:

    Array
(
    [name] => root
    [passwd] => x
    [uid] => 0
    [gid] => 0
    [gecos] => root
    [dir] => /root
    [shell] => /bin/bash
)

    Notes

    Note: This function will not work on remote files as the file to be examined must be accessible via the server's filesystem.

    Note: On Windows, this function fails silently when applied on a regular file.

    See Also

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    User Contributed Notes 4 notes

    up
    6
    martijn at sigterm dot nl
    21 years ago
    If chown is filled with a variable ( chown ("myfile", $uid) the uid will be looked up through pwget_uid.

    So if you need to set a non existing uid use inval($uid).
    up
    1
    Mikevac at yahoo dot com
    16 years ago
    I've only tested this on Solaris 10 so your mileage may vary.

    To allow the apache daemon to change file ownership without being root, add the following line to /etc/system:

    set rstchown=0

    Reboot the server.

    There are security concerns doing this as this modification allows any user to change ownership of their files to anyone else.
    up
    0
    Klaus Zierer
    21 years ago
    If you want to chown a symlink, PHP will follow the symlink and change the target file.

    If you want to chown the symlink, you have to use shell_exec("/bin/chown user.group symlink");
    up
    -2
    njs+php at scifi dot squawk dot com
    23 years ago
    If you allow sudo execution for chmod by "nobody" (www, webdaemon, httpd, whatever user php is running under)in this manner, it had better be a system on which the owner is able to be root and no one else can run code, else your whole system is compromised. Someone could change the mode of /etc/passwd or the shadow password file.

    Other system commands (sudo mount) and so forth are similar.
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