Public bug reported:
On Linux, when chown is invoked on a directory without --recursive (-R),
and the internal open() of that directory fails (e.g. due to a
permission error), the command exits with status 0 and prints no error.
Expected behaviour:
chown should exit with a non-zero status and print an error message when it
cannot open the target directory.
Steps to reproduce:
root@ace-12:~# mkdir /tmp/testdir
root@ace-12:~# chmod 600 /tmp/testdir
root@ace-12:~# stat /tmp/testdir
File: /tmp/testdir
size: 40 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 0,45 Inode: 747132 Links: 2
Access: (0600/drw-------) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2026-10-05 23:48:08.227391341 +0200
Modify: 2026-10-05 23:46:42.211882716 +0200
Change: 2026-10-05 23:48:46.260373821 +0200
Birth: 2026-10-05 23:48:46.259058378 +0200
root@ace-12:~# su user1
$ id
uid=1003(user1) gid=1003(user1) groups=1003(user1)
$ stat /tmp/testdir
File: /tmp/testdir
size: 40 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 0,45 Inode: 747132 Links: 2
Access: (0600/drw-------) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2026-10-05 23:48:08.227391341 +0200
Modify: 2026-10-05 23:46:42.211882716 +0200
Change: 2026-10-05 23:48:46.260373821 +0200
Birth: 2026-10-05 23:48:46.259058378 +0200
$ chown user1 /tmp/testdir
$ echo $?
0
With -R provided, the return code is 1 and the error message is output as
expected.
$ id
uid=1003(user1) gid=1003(user1) groups=1003(user1)
$ chown -R user1 /tmp/testdir
chown: cannot access '/tmp/testdir': Permission denied
$ echo $?
1
Environment info:
root@ace-12:~# chown --version
chown (uutils coreutils) 0.8.0
root@ace-12:~# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Release: 26.04
root@ace-12:~# apt-cache policy coreutils
coreutils:
Installed: 9.5-1ubuntu2+0.0.0~ubuntu25
Candidate: 9.5-1ubuntu2+0.0.0~ubuntu25
Version table:
*** 9.5-1ubuntu2+0.0.0~ubuntu25 500
500 http://x86-64.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64
Packages
500 http://x86-64.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main i386
Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
** Affects: rust-coreutils (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Attachment added: "strace output of the erronous chown without the expected
error message"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2169640/+attachment/6006053/+files/chown_strace_output.txt
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2169640
Title:
chown: silent success when open() fails on a directory (Linux, non-
recursive)
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