.\"- .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)chflags.1 8.4 (Berkeley) 5/2/95 .\" $FreeBSD: head/bin/chflags/chflags.1 282208 2015-04-29 00:49:00Z smh $ .\" .Dd April 20, 2015 .Dt CHFLAGS 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm chflags .Nd change file flags .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl fhv .Oo .Fl R .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P .Oc .Ar flags .Ar .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility modifies the file flags of the listed files as specified by the .Ar flags operand. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width indent .It Fl f Do not display a diagnostic message if .Nm could not modify the flags for .Va file , nor modify the exit status to reflect such failures. .It Fl H If the .Fl R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed and hence unaffected by the command. (Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.) .It Fl h If the .Ar file is a symbolic link, change the file flags of the link itself rather than the file to which it points. .It Fl L If the .Fl R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed. .It Fl P If the .Fl R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. This is the default. .It Fl R Change the file flags of the file hierarchies rooted in the files, instead of just the files themselves. Beware of unintentionally matching the .Dq Pa ".." hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like .Dq Li ".*" . .It Fl v Cause .Nm to be verbose, showing filenames as the flags are modified. If the .Fl v option is specified more than once, the old and new flags of the file will also be printed, in octal notation. .El .Pp The flags are specified as an octal number or a comma separated list of keywords. The following keywords are currently defined: .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Cm opaque" .It Cm arch , archived set the archived flag (super-user only) .It Cm nodump set the nodump flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm opaque set the opaque flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm sappnd , sappend set the system append-only flag (super-user only) .It Cm schg , schange , simmutable set the system immutable flag (super-user only) .It Cm snapshot set the snapshot flag (filesystems do not allow changing this flag) .It Cm sunlnk , sunlink set the system undeletable flag (super-user only) .It Cm uappnd , uappend set the user append-only flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm uarch , uarchive set the archive flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm uchg , uchange , uimmutable set the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm uhidden , hidden set the hidden file attribute (owner or super-user only) .It Cm uoffline , offline set the offline file attribute (owner or super-user only) .It Cm urdonly , rdonly , readonly set the DOS, Windows and CIFS readonly flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm usparse , sparse set the sparse file attribute (owner or super-user only) .It Cm usystem , system set the DOS, Windows and CIFS system flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm ureparse , reparse set the Windows reparse point file attribute (owner or super-user only) .It Cm uunlnk , uunlink set the user undeletable flag (owner or super-user only) .El .Pp Putting the letters .Dq Ar no before or removing the letters .Dq Ar no from a keyword causes the flag to be cleared. For example: .Pp .Bl -tag -offset indent -width "nouchg" -compact .It Cm nouchg clear the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only) .It Cm dump clear the nodump flag (owner or super-user only) .El .Pp A few of the octal values include: .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Li 10" .It Li 0 Clear all file flags. .It Li 1 Translates to the .Cm nodump keyword. .It Li 2 Translates to the .Cm uchg keyword. .It Li 3 Translates to the .Cm uchg , nodump keywords. .It Li 4 Translates to the .Cm uappnd keyword. .It Li 10 Translates to the .Cm opaque keyword. .It Li 20 translates to the .Cm uunlnk keyword. .El .Pp Other combinations of keywords may be placed by using the octets assigned; however, these are the most notable. .Pp Unless the .Fl H , .Fl L , or .Fl h options are given, .Nm on a symbolic link always succeeds and has no effect. The .Fl H , .Fl L and .Fl P options are ignored unless the .Fl R option is specified. In addition, these options override each other and the command's actions are determined by the last one specified. .Pp You can use "ls -lo" to see the flags of existing files. .Pp Note that the ability to change certain flags is dependent on the current kernel .Va securelevel setting. See .Xr security 7 for more information on this setting. .Sh EXIT STATUS .Ex -std .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ls 1 , .Xr chflags 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr fts 3 , .Xr security 7 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm command first appeared in .Bx 4.4 . .Sh BUGS Only a limited number of utilities are .Nm aware. Some of these tools include .Xr ls 1 , .Xr cp 1 , .Xr find 1 , .Xr install 1 , .Xr dump 8 , and .Xr restore 8 . In particular a tool which is not currently .Nm aware is the .Xr pax 1 utility.