LPIC-1 Shells, Scripting and Data Management Practice Question
A developer has a directory /home/user/project with many files and subdirectories. They need to change the group ownership of all .txt files to 'developers' and set permissions to 640. Which single command accomplishes this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often forget that `chmod` alone cannot change ownership, or they mistakenly think `chown :group` is invalid, leading them to pick an incomplete command like A or D, or they incorrectly assume `chmod -R` with a glob will recurse into subdirectories.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
find /home/user/project -name '*.txt' -exec chown :developers {} \; -exec chmod 640 {} \;
It uses `find` to locate all `.txt` files under `/home/user/project`, then executes `chown :developers` to change the group ownership to 'developers' (the colon before the group name is the correct syntax for setting only the group), followed by `chmod 640` to set the permissions to read/write for the owner and read for the group. Using `-exec` twice in a single `find` command ensures both operations are applied to each matching file without needing a separate command.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
find /home/user/project -name '*.txt' -exec chgrp developers {} \;
Why it's wrong here
Changes group only, not permissions.
- ✗
chmod -R 640 /home/user/project/*.txt
Why it's wrong here
Only changes permissions, not group, and does not recurse into subdirectories.
- ✓
find /home/user/project -name '*.txt' -exec chown :developers {} \; -exec chmod 640 {} \;
Why this is correct
Changes both group and permissions in a single find command.
- ✗
find /home/user/project -name '*.txt' -exec chmod 640 {} \;
Why it's wrong here
Changes permissions only, not group.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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