1CHMOD(2) Linux Programmer's Manual CHMOD(2)
2
3
4
6 chmod, fchmod - change permissions of a file
7
9 #include <sys/types.h>
10 #include <sys/stat.h>
11
12 int chmod(const char *path, mode_t mode);
13 int fchmod(int fildes, mode_t mode);
14
16 The mode of the file given by path or referenced by fildes is changed.
17
18 Modes are specified by or'ing the following:
19
20
21 S_ISUID 04000 set user ID on execution
22
23 S_ISGID 02000 set group ID on execution
24
25 S_ISVTX 01000 sticky bit
26
27 S_IRUSR 00400 read by owner
28
29 S_IWUSR 00200 write by owner
30
31 S_IXUSR 00100 execute/search by owner
32
33 S_IRGRP 00040 read by group
34
35 S_IWGRP 00020 write by group
36
37 S_IXGRP 00010 execute/search by group
38
39 S_IROTH 00004 read by others
40
41 S_IWOTH 00002 write by others
42
43 S_IXOTH 00001 execute/search by others
44
45
46 The effective UID of the calling process must match the owner of the
47 file, or the process must be privileged (Linux: it must have the
48 CAP_FOWNER capability).
49
50 If the calling process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the
51 CAP_FSETID capability), and the group of the file does not match the
52 effective group ID of the process or one of its supplementary group
53 IDs, the S_ISGID bit will be turned off, but this will not cause an
54 error to be returned.
55
56 As a security measure, depending on the file system, the set-user-ID
57 and set-group-ID execution bits may be turned off if a file is written.
58 (On Linux this occurs if the writing process does not have the
59 CAP_FSETID capability.) On some file systems, only the superuser can
60 set the sticky bit, which may have a special meaning. For the sticky
61 bit, and for set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits on directories, see
62 stat(2).
63
64 On NFS file systems, restricting the permissions will immediately
65 influence already open files, because the access control is done on the
66 server, but open files are maintained by the client. Widening the per‐
67 missions may be delayed for other clients if attribute caching is
68 enabled on them.
69
71 On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
72 set appropriately.
73
75 Depending on the file system, other errors can be returned. The more
76 general errors for chmod() are listed below:
77
78
79 EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.
80 (See also path_resolution(2).)
81
82 EFAULT path points outside your accessible address space.
83
84 EIO An I/O error occurred.
85
86 ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.
87
88 ENAMETOOLONG
89 path is too long.
90
91 ENOENT The file does not exist.
92
93 ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
94
95 ENOTDIR
96 A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
97
98 EPERM The effective UID does not match the owner of the file, and the
99 process is not privileged (Linux: it does not have the
100 CAP_FOWNER capability).
101
102 EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system.
103
104 The general errors for fchmod() are listed below:
105
106 EBADF The file descriptor fildes is not valid.
107
108 EIO See above.
109
110 EPERM See above.
111
112 EROFS See above.
113
115 4.4BSD, SVr4, POSIX.1-2001.
116
118 chown(2), execve(2), fchmodat(2), open(2), path_resolution(2), stat(2)
119
120
121
122Linux 2.6.7 2004-06-23 CHMOD(2)