CHMOD(1) General Commands Manual CHMOD(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

chmod - Change the mode of each FILE to MODE. With --reference, change the mode of each FILE to that of RFILE.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**chmod** \[OPTION]... MODE\[,MODE]... FILE...  
**chmod** \[OPTION]... OCTAL-MODE FILE...  
**chmod** \[OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Change the mode of each FILE to MODE. With --reference, change the mode of each FILE to that of RFILE.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**--help**](#help)

Print help information.

[**-c**, **--changes**](#c)

like verbose but report only when a change is made

[**-f**, **--quiet**](#f)

suppress most error messages

[**-v**, **--verbose**](#v)

output a diagnostic for every file processed

[**--no-preserve-root**](#no)

do not treat '/' specially (the default)

[**--preserve-root**](#preserve)

fail to operate recursively on '/'

[**-R**, **--recursive**](#R)

change files and directories recursively

[**--reference**](#reference)

use RFILE's mode instead of MODE values

[**-H**](#H)

if a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it

[**-L**](#L)

traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered

[**-P**](#P)

do not traverse any symbolic links (default)

[**--dereference**](#dereference)

affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is the default), rather than the symbolic link itself

[**-h**, **--no-dereference**](#h)

affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink)

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

\[*MODE*]

\[*FILE*]

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

Each MODE is of the form \[ugoa]\*(\[-+=](\[rwxXst]\*|\[ugo]))+|\[-+=]?\[0-7]+.

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-16

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Document: chmod(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r4 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils