GNU bug report logs - #12603
bug in chown

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Гальченко Алексей
	<gasx <at> rambler.ru>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug in chown
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:31:51 +0300

root <at> desktop:/home/user# chown user:user -R *
chown: неизвестный ключ «--else»
Попробуйте `chown --help' для получения более подробного описания.

Message #12 received at 12603-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Гальченко Алексей <gasx <at> rambler.ru>
Cc: 12603-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#12603: bug in chown
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:53:29 -0600

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

tag 12603 notabug
thanks

On 10/08/2012 09:31 AM, Гальченко Алексей wrote:
> root <at> desktop:/home/user# chown user:user -R *
> chown: неизвестный ключ «--else»
> Попробуйте `chown --help' для получения более подробного описания.

Thanks for the report.  However, I suspect that what happened is that
you have a file in your current working directory whose name starts with
'-', and was therefore treated as an option.  If I'm right, then this
FAQ covers the situation:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#I-have-a-file-_0027_002df_0027-and-it-affects-rm_002e

and you can use either of these constructs to avoid the issue:

chown user:user -R ./*
chown user:user -R -- *

For that matter, using '*' with -R is rather pointless; it risks
exceeding command line limits and omits files whose names start with '.'
in the current directory; you probably want to do:

chown -R user:user .

which is also mentioned in the FAQ:
https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#ls-_002da-_002a-does-not-list-dot-files

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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