NAME

takeown - Take ownership on files, even for unprivileged users

SYNOPSIS

takeown [options] <files and directories>

DESCRIPTION

Command chown(1) or chown(2) is permitted only for root (and processes with CAP_CHOWN), but normal users can imitate this behavior. You can copy other users' file to your own in a directory writable by you, and then replace the original file with your copy. It is quite tricky and maybe expensive (copying huge files), but gives you an option. Say, when somebody forgot to use the right user account when saving files directly to your folders.

takeown(1) uses *.takeown and *.tookown filename extensions to create new files and to rename existing files to respectively.

See takeown --help for option list.

TECH REFERENCE

Call stack

  script --> main --> takeown
                      /  |  \
                     /   |   \
                    /    |    \
            takeown   takeown  takeown
            _file    _symlink  _directory
              |         |           |
  - - - - - - | - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  error       |         |           |
  handler     |         |           V         ,---> register_created_dir
  function:   |         |  ,--> takeown       |
  cleanup     |         |  |    _directory ---+---> register_moved_file
              |         |  |    _recursive    |
              |         |  |      | |     \   `---> register_
              |         |  `------´ |      \    ,-> copied_file
              |         V           V       \   |
              |      copy_out <-- copy_out --\--'
              |      _symlink     /           \
              V                  /            |
          copy_out <------------´             |
            _file                             |
              |                               |
              `-------> copy_attributes <-----´