How to Change Owner of Folders and Subfolders in Ubuntu

As you learn Ubuntu, you find that you need to change the ownership of a folder or even its subfolders. Why is this important? Whether you’re an administrator managing multi-user environments or a regular user consolidating data, changing folder ownership can serve several key purposes.

For instance, altering folder ownership could be crucial for segregating resources in shared systems, executing specific scripts, or granting selective access to sensitive information. When you’re deploying applications, transferring files, or performing automated tasks via cron jobs, correct ownership is often important for seamless operation.

Knowing how to modify folder and subfolder ownership becomes essential for anyone aiming for a higher degree of control and customization over their Ubuntu system. Let’s dive into how to accomplish that below.

If you’re already well-acquainted with the idea of file and folder ownership in Linux, you can skip this section. If you’re relatively new to Ubuntu or Linux in general, let’s look at what it means to set ownership on a file or folder.

In any Linux distribution, file and folder ownership constitutes a major cornerstone in system security and resource management. It allows the system administrator to grant access to files and folders on an as-needed basis, while also keeping the average user from inadvertently modifying an important system application or configuration file.