Is there documentation for chown that is easier to understand?
Actually there is such documentation. Open a command line terminal - CtrlAltT and enter:
info chown
you will find this document uses less technical terms and phrasing, and explains the command in a more "conversational" manner. It is therefore easier to read and understand for beginner users.
After reading the info
page I recommend familiarizing yourself with the man
page for chown
, because the man
pages tend to be more succinct and complete.
I suggest installing tldr project:
$ tldr chown
# chown
Change user and group ownership of files and folders.
- Change the owner user of a file/folder:
chown user path/to/file
- Change the owner user and group of a file/folder:
chown user:group path/to/file
- Recursively change the owner of a folder and its contents:
chown -R user path/to/folder
- Change the owner of a symbolic link:
chown -h user path/to/symlink
- Change the owner of a file/folder to match a reference file:
chown --reference=path/to/reference_file path/to/file
Not supposed to post link only answers (for which I apologise) but I think this link might be what you are looking for as it explains things in simple detail with examples.