.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el .ds Aq '
.TH CHMOD 1 "2026-09-01"
.SH NAME
chmod \- Change the mode of each FILE to MODE.
With \-\-reference, change the mode of each FILE to that of RFILE.
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBchmod\fR [OPTION]... MODE[,MODE]... FILE...
.br
\fBchmod\fR [OPTION]... OCTAL\-MODE FILE...
.br
\fBchmod\fR [OPTION]... \-\-reference=RFILE FILE...
.SH DESCRIPTION
Change the mode of each FILE to MODE.
With \-\-reference, change the mode of each FILE to that of RFILE.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
Print help information.
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-changes\fR
like verbose but report only when a change is made
.TP
\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
suppress most error messages
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
output a diagnostic for every file processed
.TP
\fB\-\-no\-preserve\-root\fR
do not treat \*(Aq/\*(Aq specially (the default)
.TP
\fB\-\-preserve\-root\fR
fail to operate recursively on \*(Aq/\*(Aq
.TP
\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-recursive\fR
change files and directories recursively
.TP
\fB\-\-reference\fR
use RFILE\*(Aqs mode instead of MODE values
.TP
\fB\-H\fR
if a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it
.TP
\fB\-L\fR
traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered
.TP
\fB\-P\fR
do not traverse any symbolic links (default)
.TP
\fB\-\-dereference\fR
affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is the default), rather than the symbolic link itself
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-no\-dereference\fR
affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink)
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
Print version
.TP
[\fIMODE\fR]

.TP
[\fIFILE\fR]

.SH EXTRA
Each MODE is of the form [ugoa]*([\-+=]([rwxXst]*|[ugo]))+|[\-+=]?[0\-7]+.
.SH VERSION
v(uutils coreutils) 0.11.0