Filesystem Functions
PHP Manual

chown

Changes file owner

Description

bool chown ( string $filename , mixed $user )

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: When safe mode is enabled, PHP checks whether the files or directories being operated upon have the same UID (owner) as the script that is being executed.

See Also

  • chmod
  • chgrp