CHCON(1) General Commands Manual CHCON(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

chcon - Change the SELinux security context of each FILE to CONTEXT. With --reference, change the security context of each FILE to that of RFILE.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**chcon** \[OPTION]... CONTEXT FILE...  
**chcon** \[OPTION]... \[-u USER] \[-r ROLE] \[-l RANGE] \[-t TYPE] FILE...  
**chcon** \[OPTION]... --reference=RFILE FILE...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Change the SELinux security context of each FILE to CONTEXT. With --reference, change the security context of each FILE to that of RFILE.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**--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.

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

help

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

Fail to operate recursively on '/'.

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

Do not treat '/' specially (the default).

[**--reference** *<RFILE>*](#reference)

Use security context of RFILE, rather than specifying a CONTEXT value.

[**-u**, **--user** *<USER>*](#u)

Set user USER in the target security context.

[**-r**, **--role** *<ROLE>*](#r)

Set role ROLE in the target security context.

[**-t**, **--type** *<TYPE>*](#t)

Set type TYPE in the target security context.

[**-l**, **--range** *<RANGE>*](#l)

Set range RANGE in the target security context.

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

Operate on files and directories recursively.

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

If a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it. Only valid when -R is specified.

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

Traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered. Only valid when -R is specified.

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

Do not traverse any symbolic links (default). Only valid when -R is specified.

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

Output a diagnostic for every file processed.

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

Print version

\[*FILE*]

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-29

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Document: chcon(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r5 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils