.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
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.TH CHCON 1 "2026-10-29"
.SH 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.
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBchcon\fR [OPTION]... CONTEXT FILE...
.br
\fBchcon\fR [OPTION]... [\-u USER] [\-r ROLE] [\-l RANGE] [\-t TYPE] FILE...
.br
\fBchcon\fR [OPTION]... \-\-reference=RFILE FILE...
.SH DESCRIPTION
Change the SELinux security context of each FILE to CONTEXT.
With \-\-reference, change the security context of each FILE to that of RFILE.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-\-dereference\fR
Affect the referent of each symbolic link (this is the default), rather than the symbolic link itself.
.TP
\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-no\-dereference\fR
Affect symbolic links instead of any referenced file.
.TP
\fB\-\-help\fR
help
.TP
\fB\-\-preserve\-root\fR
Fail to operate recursively on \*(Aq/\*(Aq.
.TP
\fB\-\-no\-preserve\-root\fR
Do not treat \*(Aq/\*(Aq specially (the default).
.TP
\fB\-\-reference\fR \fI<RFILE>\fR
Use security context of RFILE, rather than specifying a CONTEXT value.
.TP
\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-user\fR \fI<USER>\fR
Set user USER in the target security context.
.TP
\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-role\fR \fI<ROLE>\fR
Set role ROLE in the target security context.
.TP
\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-type\fR \fI<TYPE>\fR
Set type TYPE in the target security context.
.TP
\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-range\fR \fI<RANGE>\fR
Set range RANGE in the target security context.
.TP
\fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-recursive\fR
Operate on files and directories recursively.
.TP
\fB\-H\fR
If a command line argument is a symbolic link to a directory, traverse it. Only valid when \-R is specified.
.TP
\fB\-L\fR
Traverse every symbolic link to a directory encountered. Only valid when \-R is specified.
.TP
\fB\-P\fR
Do not traverse any symbolic links (default). Only valid when \-R is specified.
.TP
\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
Output a diagnostic for every file processed.
.TP
\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
Print version
.TP
[\fIFILE\fR]

.SH VERSION
v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0