Manual Pages  — CHFLAGS

The options are as follows:

-f
	Do not display a diagnostic message if chflags could not modify the flags for file, nor modify the exit status to reflect such failures.
-H
	If the -R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed and hence unaffected by the command. (Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.)
-h
	If the file is a symbolic link, change the file flags of the link itself rather than the file to which it points.
-L
	If the -R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.
-P
	If the -R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. This is the default.
-R
	Change the file flags of the file hierarchies rooted in the files, instead of just the files themselves. Beware of unintentionally matching the " .." hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like ".*".
-v
	Cause chflags to be verbose, showing filenames as the flags are modified. If the -v option is specified more than once, the old and new flags of the file will also be printed, in octal notation.
-x
	Do not cross mount points.

The flags are specified as an octal number or a comma separated list of keywords. The following keywords are currently defined:

arch, archived	set the archived flag (super-user only)
nodump	set the nodump flag (owner or super-user only)
opaque	set the opaque flag (owner or super-user only)
sappnd, sappend	set the system append-only flag (super-user only)
schg, schange, simmutable	set the system immutable flag (super-user only)
snapshot	set the snapshot flag (filesystems do not allow changing this flag)
sunlnk, sunlink	set the system undeletable flag (super-user only)
uappnd, uappend	set the user append-only flag (owner or super-user only)
uarch, uarchive	set the archive flag (owner or super-user only)
uchg, uchange, uimmutable	set the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only)
uhidden, hidden	set the hidden file attribute (owner or super-user only)
uoffline, offline	set the offline file attribute (owner or super-user only)
urdonly, rdonly, readonly	set the DOS, Windows and CIFS readonly flag (owner or super-user only)
usparse, sparse	set the sparse file attribute (owner or super-user only)
usystem, system	set the DOS, Windows and CIFS system flag (owner or super-user only)
ureparse, reparse	set the Windows reparse point file attribute (owner or super-user only)
uunlnk, uunlink	set the user undeletable flag (owner or super-user only)

Putting the letters "no" before or removing the letters "no" from a keyword causes the flag to be cleared. For example:

nouchg	clear the user immutable flag (owner or super-user only)
dump	clear the nodump flag (owner or super-user only)

A few of the octal values include:

0	Clear all file flags.
1	Translates to the nodump keyword.
2	Translates to the uchg keyword.
3	Translates to the uchg, nodump keywords.
4	Translates to the uappnd keyword.
10	Translates to the opaque keyword.
20	translates to the uunlnk keyword.

Other combinations of keywords may be placed by using the octets assigned; however, these are the most notable.

Unless the -H, -L, or -h options are given, chflags on a symbolic link always succeeds and has no effect. The -H, -L and -P options are ignored unless the -R option is specified. In addition, these options override each other and the command's actions are determined by the last one specified.

You can use "ls -lo" to see the flags of existing files.