linuxchown

What does Linux' chown '-R' parameter mean?

The explanation is:

"-R, --recursive

operate on files and directories recursively"

What does "recursive" mean here?

Solution

  • "Recursive" implies that the operation will be performed for all files and directories (and all files and directories within any directory). So

    chown -R foo /some/path

    would change file owner to foo for all files and directories in /some/path

    p.s. You might have even seen the dictionary entry for recursive:

    recursive, n: See recursive