1setfiles(8) SELinux User Command setfiles(8)
2
6 setfiles - set SELinux file security contexts.
7
10 setfiles [-c policy] [-d] [-l] [-m] [-n] [-e directory] [-p] [-s] [-v]
11 [-W] [-F] [-I|-D] spec_file pathname ...
12
15 This manual page describes the setfiles program.
16 This program is primarily used to initialize the security context
18 fields (extended attributes) on one or more filesystems (or parts of
19 them). Usually it is initially run as part of the SELinux installation
20 process (a step commonly known as labeling).
21 It can also be run at any other time to correct inconsistent labels, to
23 add support for newly-installed policy or, by using the -n option, to
24 passively check whether the file contexts are all set as specified by
25 the active policy (default behavior) or by some other policy (see the
26 -c option).
27 If a file object does not have a context, setfiles will write the
29 default context to the file object's extended attributes. If a file
30 object has a context, setfiles will only modify the type portion of the
31 security context. The -F option will force a replacement of the entire
32 context.
33
35 -c check the validity of the contexts against the specified binary
36 policy.
37 -d show what specification matched each file (do not abort valida‐
39 tion after 10 errors). Not affected by "-q"
40 -e directory
42 directory to exclude (repeat option for more than one direc‐
43 tory).
44 -f infilename
46 infilename contains a list of files to be processed. Use “-” for
47 stdin.
48 -F Force reset of context to match file_context for customizable
50 files, and the default file context, changing the user, role,
51 range portion as well as the type.
52 -h, -? display usage information and exit.
54 -i ignore files that do not exist.
56 -I ignore digest to force checking of labels even if the stored
58 SHA1 digest matches the specfiles SHA1 digest. The digest will
59 then be updated provided there are no errors. See the NOTES sec‐
60 tion for further details.
61 -D Set or update any directory SHA1 digests. Use this option to
63 enable usage of the security.restorecon_last extended attribute.
64 -l log changes in file labels to syslog.
66 -m do not read /proc/mounts to obtain a list of non-seclabel mounts
68 to be excluded from relabeling checks. Setting this option is
69 useful where there is a non-seclabel fs mounted with a seclabel
70 fs mounted on a directory below this.
71 -n don't change any file labels (passive check).
73 -o outfilename
75 Deprecated - This option is no longer supported.
76 -p show progress by printing the number of files in 1k blocks
78 unless relabeling the entire OS, that will then show the approx‐
79 imate percentage complete. Note that the -p and -v options are
80 mutually exclusive.
81 -q Deprecated, was only used to stop printing inode association
83 parameters.
84 -r rootpath
86 use an alternate root path. Used in meta-selinux for OpenEmbed‐
87 ded/Yocto builds to label files under rootpath as if they were
88 at /
89 -s take a list of files from standard input instead of using a
91 pathname from the command line (equivalent to “-f -” ).
92 -v show changes in file labels and output any inode association
94 parameters. Note that the -v and -p options are mutually exclu‐
95 sive.
96 -W display warnings about entries that had no matching files by
98 outputting the selabel_stats(3) results.
99 -0 the separator for the input items is assumed to be the null
101 character (instead of the white space). The quotes and the
102 backslash characters are also treated as normal characters that
103 can form valid input. This option finally also disables the end
104 of file string, which is treated like any other argument. Use‐
105 ful when input items might contain white space, quote marks or
106 backslashes. The -print0 option of GNU find produces input
107 suitable for this mode.
108
111 spec_file
112 The specification file which contains lines of the following
113 form:
114 regexp [type] context | <<none>>
116 The regular expression is anchored at both ends. The
117 optional type field specifies the file type as shown in
118 the mode field by the ls(1) program, e.g. -- to match
119 only regular files or -d to match only directories. The
120 context can be an ordinary security context or the string
121 <<none>> to specify that the file is not to have its con‐
122 text changed.
123 The last matching specification is used. If there are
124 multiple hard links to a file that match different speci‐
125 fications and those specifications indicate different
126 security contexts, then a warning is displayed but the
127 file is still labeled based on the last matching specifi‐
128 cation other than <<none>>.
129 pathname ...
131 The pathname for the root directory of each file system to be
132 relabeled or a specific directory within a filesystem that
133 should be recursively descended and relabeled or the pathname of
134 a file that should be relabeled. Not used if the -f or the -s
135 option is used.
136
139 1. setfiles follows symbolic links and operates recursively on direc‐
140 tories.
141 2. If the pathname specifies the root directory and the -v option is
143 set and the audit system is running, then an audit event is auto‐
144 matically logged stating that a "mass relabel" took place using the
145 message label FS_RELABEL.
146 3. To improve performance when relabeling file systems recursively the
148 -D option to setfiles will cause it to store a SHA1 digest of the
149 spec_file set in an extended attribute named security.restore‐
150 con_last on the directory specified in each pathname ... once the
151 relabeling has been completed successfully. This digest will be
152 checked should setfiles -D be rerun with the same spec_file and
153 pathname parameters. See selinux_restorecon(3) for further details.
154 The -I option will ignore the SHA1 digest from each directory spec‐
156 ified in pathname ... and provided the -n option is NOT set, files
157 will be relabeled as required with the digest then being updated
158 provided there are no errors.
159
162 This man page was written by Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au>. The
163 program was written by Stephen Smalley <sds@tycho.nsa.gov>
164
167 restorecon(8), load_policy(8), checkpolicy(8)
168 10 June 2016 setfiles(8)