How to Change the Owner of a Directory Using Python

We can change who owns a file or directory by using the pwd, grp, and os modules. The uid module is used to change the owner, get the group ID from the group name string, and get the user ID from the user name. In this article, we will see how to change the owner of a directory using Python.

Change the Owner of a Directory Using Python

Below are the ways by which we can change the owner of a directory using Python:

• Using os.chown() Method
• Using shutil.chown() Method

Using os.chown() Method

To change the owner and group ID of the given path to the specified numeric owner ID (UID) and group ID (GID), use Python's os.chown() method.

Syntax of os.chown() Method

os.chown(filepath, uid, gid, *, dir_fd = None, follow_symlinks = True)

Parameters:

• path: A file descriptor representing the file whose uid and gid is to be set
• uid: An integer value representing the owner id to be set for the path.
• gid: An integer value representing the group id to be set for the path. To leave any one of the ids unchanged, set it to -1.
• dir_fd(optional): A file descriptor referring to a directory. The default value of this parameter is None.
• follow_symlinks(optional): The default value of this parameter is True. If we do not want os.chown() method to follow symlink, we can set it to False. If it is False, method will operate on the symbolic link itself instead of the file the link points to.he procedure will work on the symbolic link rather than the file it links to.

Return Type:This method does not return any value.

Example 1: Changing Owner and Group ID

In this example, the function change is defined to modify the owner and group IDs of a specified file path (path). It prints the current owner and group IDs, changes them to the provided uid and gid, then displays the updated IDs.

Output:

└─$ sudo python3 kislay.py
file's owner id: 100
file's group id: 100
Owner id and group id of the file is changed successfully
file's owner id now is: 1500
file's group id now is: 1500

Example 2: Changing Owner ID Only

In this example, the function change_owner is utilized to update the owner ID of a specified file (path) while maintaining the existing group ID. It first prints the current owner and group IDs, then changes the owner ID to the provided uid, and finally displays the updated owner and group IDs.

Output:

└─$ sudo python3 kislay.py
[sudo] password for kislay:
file's owner id: 1500
file's group id: 1000

Owner id of the file is changed successfully leaving the group id unchanged

file's owner id now is: 200
file's group id now is: 1000

Using shutil.chown() Method

In this example, the function change is defined to modify both the owner and group of a specified file (path). It first retrieves the current owner and group, then changes them to the provided uid and gid using shutil.chown().

Output:

$ sudo python3 code2.py
[sudo] password for kislay:
Present owner and group
Present owner: kislay
Present group: kislay

The owner and the group is changed successfully
Present owner now: uucp
Present group now: uucp