We use a theorem of Chow (1949) on line-preserving bijections of
Grassmannians to determine the automorphism group of Grassmann codes. Further,
we analyze the automorphisms of the big cell of a Grassmannian and then use it
to settle an open question of Beelen et al. (2010) concerning the permutation
automorphism groups of affine Grassmann codes. Finally, we prove an analogue of
Chow's theorem for the case of Schubert divisors in Grassmannians and then use
it to determine the automorphism group of linear codes associated to such
Schubert divisors. In the course of this work, we also give an alternative
short proof of MacWilliams theorem concerning the equivalence of linear codes
and a characterization of maximal linear subspaces of Schubert divisors in
Grassmannians.Comment: revised versio