Can you change group ownership only?

Yes, you certainly can! If you only want to change the group ownership without affecting the user owner, there are two ways to do it.

Method 1: Using chown with the colon syntax

You can leave the "user" part empty before the colon. Linux will understand that you only want to update the group.

sudo chown :labex example.txt

In this example, the group changes back to labex, but the user owner (which you previously set to root) stays as root.

Method 2: Using the chgrp command

Linux also provides a specific command just for changing groups: chgrp (short for change group).

sudo chgrp labex example.txt

Summary of Syntax:

• chown user:group file -> Changes both.
• chown user file -> Changes user only.
• chown :group file -> Changes group only.
• chgrp group file -> Changes group only.

Both methods are perfectly valid, though many system administrators prefer chown :group because it allows them to remember just one command (chown) for all ownership tasks