How to change ownership of files in one stroke?

Question

Level 1

1 points

How to change ownership of files in one stroke?

From the migration process to another iMac (with another short username) I inherited a lot of files with Owner . Does anybody know about a method or utility to change the ownership of just those files with Owner to Owner in one stroke? It really is a nuisance to check and adjust every file separately.

iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Oct 12, 2007 11:22 AM

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Answer 1

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Oct 12, 2007 2:55 PM in response to Walter Bohle

Open your Terminal and write: sudo find / -user unknown -exec chown username: '{}' ';'

This search the complete root volume for the User unknown and change it to the username. For the current location use instead an slash a dot, or set an path.

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Answer 2

biovizier

Level 5

7,931 points

Oct 12, 2007 3:53 PM in response to Zerwas

Note that Apple has a bad habit of hijacking terms for the GUI that already have established meanings "under the hood" - a prime example is referring to "Login Items" as "Startup Items" in 10.3.

In this case, the term "unknown" may refer to the user with ' uid=99', or to a case where the numeric ' uid' of the file's owner doesn't correspond to a user or the system which is displayed in the "Finder" as "(unknown)"...

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Answer 3

Oct 13, 2007 10:31 PM in response to Zerwas

I appear to have changed the permissions on a drive so that there is no owner! I can no longer get at the drive! I believe I may have to use Terminal to get access but am a little nervous about doing so! Can anyone advise me PLEASE!!!!!!

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Oct 14, 2007 12:04 AM in response to PaddyPaddy

No threadjacking allowed. Start your own topic or, better yet, search these forums for *no access*, *can't access hard drive*, etc.

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Answer 5

Oct 14, 2007 1:22 AM in response to baltwo

Sorry! New to this! Will do!

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Answer 6

Walter Bohle Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 15, 2007 1:41 PM in response to biovizier

Thanks both Zerwas and biovizier!

Honestly, I don't fully understand:
"In this case, the term "unknown" may refer to the user with 'uid=99', or to a case where the numeric 'uid' of the file's owner doesn't correspond to a user or the system which is displayed in the "Finder" as "(unknown)"... "

Does this mean that it's not safe to follow the Terminal command advice of Zerwas? Or that it won't help?

Maybe the following information sheds some extra light on what's wrong and/or what should be done to correct:
1. My UID is 501.
1. Most - if not all - (unknown) owner names in the main Library files. It's either system or unknown.
2. Can't replace some (new for old, while updating) files in the Applications folder, although the Application folder permissions are correct according to Disk Utility and although I have full Read and Write permissions (with my new username) for those files. Funny enough I can easily trash them instead, followed by moving in the new file.

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Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Oct 15, 2007 5:04 PM in response to Walter Bohle

*Does this mean that it's not safe to follow the Terminal command advice of Zerwas?*

I wouldn't because his advice will change the ownership on all files/folders properly owned by unknown, a legal OS X user. Now, if you limit the changes to /Users/, that'll only change those inside all user subfolders and, IIRC, none of those should be owned by unknown.

Since you migrated from a PPC to an ICBM (Intel-chip-based Mac), you should review http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1872713

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