Python’s shutil module provides several useful functions for file and directory manipulation. One of these functions is shutil.chown(), which allows you to change the owner and group of a file or directory.

Syntax

The syntax for shutil.chown() is as follows:

shutil.chown(path, user, group)

Here, path is the path to the file or directory that you want to change ownership for. user and group are the new owner and group that you want to set for the specified path, respectively.

Example

Let’s say we have a file called “example.txt” and we want to change its owner to “john” and group to “staff”. We can achieve this using shutil.chown() as shown below:

import shutil

path = "example.txt"
user = "john"
group = "staff"

# Change the owner and group of the file
shutil.chown(path, user, group)

In this example, we import the shutil module and define the path of the file we want to modify. We then specify the new owner as “john” and the new group as “staff”. Finally, we call shutil.chown() with the specified arguments to change the ownership of the file.

It’s important to note that in order to use shutil.chown(), you need to have sufficient permissions to modify the ownership of the specified file or directory. Otherwise, you may encounter a PermissionError.

Conclusion

The shutil.chown() function in Python’s shutil module allows you to easily change the owner and group of a file or directory. By using this function, you can modify the ownership of files or directories programmatically, providing flexibility and control over your file system operations.