chown

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

Changes file owner

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.

Returns:

Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Notes:

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

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.

Examples:

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
)