Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Name

chflags

Synopsis

    chflags [-R [-H | -L | -P]] flags file ...

Change the file flags associated with files. The flags are additional control bits that can be displayed by using ls -lo.

Options

-H

With -R, follow symbolic links on the command line. Symbolic links found during file traversal normally are not followed.

-L

With -R, follow all symbolic links.

-P

With -R, don’t follow any symbolic links. This is the default.

-R

Recursive. For each file that is a directory, change the flags in the entire contained directory hierarchy. Otherwise, just changes the flags for each named file.

Flags

arch, archived

The archived flag (privileged user only)

nodump

The nodump flag (owner or privileged user only)

opaque

The opaque flag (owner or privileged user only)

sappnd, sappend

The system append-only flag (privileged user only)

schg, schange, simmutable

The system immutable flag (privileged user only)

sunlnk, sunlink

The system undeletable flag (privileged user only)

uappnd, uappend

The user append-only flag (owner or privileged user only)

uchg, uchange, uimmutable

The user immutable flag (owner or privileged user only)

uunlnk, uunlink

The user undeletable flag (owner or privileged user only)

Put the letters no in front of a flag name to clear the given flag. Symbolic links don’t have flags, thus the operation always succeeds but makes no change.