PTS_CHOWN(1)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 PTS_CHOWN(1) — like, the AFS Command Reference girlies know 👑

okay so bestie, welcome to pts_chown, straight out of the AFS Command Reference. this is the glow-up command for Protection Database entries and I'm obsessed 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

pts_chown — changes the owner of a Protection Database entry. that's it, that's the whole vibe 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pts chown -name <group name> -owner <new owner>
    [-cell <cell name>] [-noauth] [-localauth] [-force] [-help]
    [-auth] [-encrypt] [-config <config directory>]

pts cho -na <group name> -o <new owner>
    [-c <cell name>] [-no] [-l] [-f] [-h]
    [-a] [-e] [-co <config directory>]

like yes, there are two forms, and yes, the second one is the short-form abbreviation era 🦋 na is short for name, o for owner, you get it, iykyk.

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so the pts chown command makes the user or group named by -owner the owner of the group named by -name, and it writes that new owner into the owner field of the group's Protection Database entry. new owner, who dis, slay. ✨

okay now the important part, bestie, pay attention 📢 for regular groups, this command automatically changes the group name's owner prefix — that's the part of the group name before the colon — so it matches the new owner. but here's the plot twist: if the new owner is itself a group, then only its owner prefix becomes the owner prefix in the new name, not its complete name. the way that the full name does NOT carry over is honestly so real of the Protection Server. 🙈

and it gets deeper: that change to the owner prefix does not propagate to any groups owned by the group. nope, nothing trickles down. so if you want the owner prefix of those group-owned groups to reflect the new owning group, you gotta run pts rename yourself. periodt. 💅

also, huge caveat: you cannot change a user or machine entry's owner away from the default. that default is the system:administrators group, set at creation time, and it stays. no cap. 😭

⚠️ CAUTIONS ⚠️

okay so technically, designating a machine as a group's owner does not cause an error. technically. but it is not recommended 🫠 why? because the Protection Server does not extend the usual privileges of group ownership to users logged onto that machine. so the machine owns the group but the humans on it get nothing. it's giving fake ownership energy fr fr.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -name <group name> — specifies the current name of the group you're assigning a new owner to.
  • -owner <new owner> — names the user or group that becomes the group's owner. the new main character 👑
  • -auth — use the calling user's tokens to talk to the Protection Server. more details in pts(1).
  • -cell <cell name> — names the cell to run the command in. more details in pts(1).
  • -config <config directory> — use an alternate config directory. more details in pts(1).
  • -encrypt — encrypts any communication with the Protection Server. more details in pts(1). 🔒
  • -force — lets the command keep going as far as possible when errors or other problems happen, instead of stopping dead at the first error.
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. every other valid option gets ignored, sorry bestie, -help is the only one talking 😌
  • -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. do not combine this flag with the -cell or -noauth options. more details in pts(1).
  • -noauth — assigns the unprivileged identity anonymous to the issuer. more details in pts(1).

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

example one, changing the owner of the group "terry:friends" from the user "terry" to the user "pat". side effect? the group name changes to "pat:friends". cute.

% pts chown -name terry:friends -owner pat

example two, changing the owner of the group "terry:friends" from the user "terry" to the group "pat:buddies". side effect? the group name changes to "pat:friends" — remember, only the owner prefix carries over, not the whole name 💖

% pts chown -name terry:friends -owner pat:buddies

🔐 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 🔐

the issuer must belong to the system:administrators group, or currently own the group. either/or, pick your lane ✨

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

pts(1), pts_rename(1)

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate 🍓 this was OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27, and honestly? iconic. go change some owners, no cap 💜🧚

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