Title: WP_Filesystem_Base::chown
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# WP_Filesystem_Base::chown( string $file, string|int $owner, bool $recursive = false ): bool

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Changes the owner of a file or directory.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

Default behavior is to do nothing, override this in your subclass, if desired.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$file`stringrequired

Path to the file or directory.

`$owner`string|intrequired

A user name or number.

`$recursive`booloptional

If set to true, changes file owner recursively.

Default:`false`

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 bool True on success, false on failure.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function chown( $file, $owner, $recursive = false ) {
    	return false;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php#L475)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-base.php#L475-L477)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_filesystem_base/chown/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.5.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.5.0/) | Introduced. |

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