PHP chown() Function: Changing File Ownership

The PHP chown() function changes the owner of a specified file to a given user, which can be identified by name or UID; only the superuser can perform this operation.

Signature: bool chown(string $filename, mixed $user) Parameters:

filename : Path to the file.

user : Username or numeric ID of the new owner.

Return value: TRUE on success, FALSE on failure.

Example 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']));
?>

Sample output of the above script might be:

Array
[
    [name] => root
    [passwd] => x
    [uid] => 0
    [gid] => 0
    [gecos] => root
    [dir] => /root
    [shell] => /bin/bash
]