LPIC-1 GNU and Unix Commands Practice Question
An administrator wants to change the ownership of a file to user 'jane' and group 'staff'. Which command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the colon (:) with a period (.) as the separator, or incorrectly assume that `chown` can accept two separate arguments for user and group, leading them to choose option A or D instead of the correct colon syntax.
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
✓
chown jane:staff file
The `chown` command with the syntax `chown user:group file` changes both the user and group ownership of a file in a single command. This is the standard POSIX syntax, where a colon separates the user and group names, allowing the administrator to set ownership to user 'jane' and group 'staff' atomically.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
chown jane.staff file
Why it's wrong here
Period is not the correct separator; use colon.
- ✗
chgrp jane staff file
Why it's wrong here
chgrp does not change user.
- ✓
chown jane:staff file
Why this is correct
Correct syntax: user:group.
- ✗
chown jane staff file
Why it's wrong here
Missing colon between user and group.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LPIC-1 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-1 exam.