chmod(2) System Calls Manual chmod(2)
NAME
chmod, fchmod, fchmodat - change permissions of a file
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int chmod(const char *pathname, mode_t mode);
int fchmod(int fd, mode_t mode);
#include <fcntl.h> /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <sys/stat.h>
int fchmodat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, mode_t mode, int flags);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
fchmod():
Since glibc 2.24:
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L
glibc 2.19 to glibc 2.23
_POSIX_C_SOURCE
glibc 2.16 to glibc 2.19:
_BSD_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE
glibc 2.12 to glibc 2.16:
_BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
|| _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
glibc 2.11 and earlier:
_BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
fchmodat():
Since glibc 2.10:
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
Before glibc 2.10:
_ATFILE_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
The chmod() and fchmod() system calls change a file's mode bits. (The
file mode consists of the file permission bits plus the set-user-ID,
set-group-ID, and sticky bits.) These system calls differ only in how
the file is specified:
• chmod() changes the mode of the file specified whose pathname is
given in pathname, which is dereferenced if it is a symbolic link.
• fchmod() changes the mode of the file referred to by the open file
descriptor fd.
The new file mode is specified in mode, which is a bit mask created by
ORing together zero or more of the following:
S_ISUID (04000) set-user-ID (set process effective user ID on ex-
ecve(2))
S_ISGID (02000) set-group-ID (set process effective group ID on ex-
ecve(2); mandatory locking, as described in fcntl(2);
take a new file's group from parent directory, as de-
scribed in chown(2) and mkdir(2))
S_ISVTX (01000) sticky bit (restricted deletion flag, as described in
unlink(2))
S_IRUSR (00400) read by owner
S_IWUSR (00200) write by owner
S_IXUSR (00100) execute/search by owner ("search" applies for directo-
ries, and means that entries within the directory can
be accessed)
S_IRGRP (00040) read by group
S_IWGRP (00020) write by group
S_IXGRP (00010) execute/search by group
S_IROTH (00004) read by others
S_IWOTH (00002) write by others
S_IXOTH (00001) execute/search by others
The effective UID of the calling process must match the owner of the
file, or the process must be privileged (Linux: it must have the
CAP_FOWNER capability).
If the calling process is not privileged (Linux: does not have the
CAP_FSETID capability), and the group of the file does not match the ef-
fective group ID of the process or one of its supplementary group IDs,
the S_ISGID bit will be turned off, but this will not cause an error to
be returned.
As a security measure, depending on the filesystem, the set-user-ID and
set-group-ID execution bits may be turned off if a file is written. (On
Linux, this occurs if the writing process does not have the CAP_FSETID
capability.) On some filesystems, only the superuser can set the sticky
bit, which may have a special meaning. For the sticky bit, and for set-
user-ID and set-group-ID bits on directories, see inode(7).
On NFS filesystems, restricting the permissions will immediately influ-
ence already open files, because the access control is done on the
server, but open files are maintained by the client. Widening the per-
missions may be delayed for other clients if attribute caching is en-
abled on them.
fchmodat()
The fchmodat() system call operates in exactly the same way as chmod(),
except for the differences described here.
If the pathname given in pathname is relative, then it is interpreted
relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd
(rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling
process, as is done by chmod() for a relative pathname).
If pathname is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then
pathname is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the
calling process (like chmod()).
If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.
flags can either be 0, or include the following flag:
AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
If pathname is a symbolic link, do not dereference it: instead
operate on the link itself. This flag is not currently imple-
mented.
See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for fchmodat().
RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
Depending on the filesystem, errors other than those listed below can be
returned.
The more general errors for chmod() are listed below:
EACCES Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.
(See also path_resolution(7).)
EBADF (fchmod()) The file descriptor fd is not valid.
EBADF (fchmodat()) pathname is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD
nor a valid file descriptor.
EFAULT pathname points outside your accessible address space.
EINVAL (fchmodat()) Invalid flag specified in flags.
EIO An I/O error occurred.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving pathname.
ENAMETOOLONG
pathname is too long.
ENOENT The file does not exist.
ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
ENOTDIR
(fchmodat()) pathname is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor
referring to a file other than a directory.
ENOTSUP
(fchmodat()) flags specified AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW, which is not
supported.
EPERM The effective UID does not match the owner of the file, and the
process is not privileged (Linux: it does not have the CAP_FOWNER
capability).
EPERM The file is marked immutable or append-only. (See FS_IOC_SET-
FLAGS(2const).)
EROFS The named file resides on a read-only filesystem.
VERSIONS
C library/kernel differences
The GNU C library fchmodat() wrapper function implements the POSIX-spec-
ified interface described in this page. This interface differs from the
underlying Linux system call, which does not have a flags argument.
glibc notes
On older kernels where fchmodat() is unavailable, the glibc wrapper
function falls back to the use of chmod(). When pathname is a relative
pathname, glibc constructs a pathname based on the symbolic link in
/proc/self/fd that corresponds to the dirfd argument.
STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2008.
HISTORY
chmod()
fchmod()
4.4BSD, SVr4, POSIX.1-2001.
fchmodat()
POSIX.1-2008. Linux 2.6.16, glibc 2.4.
SEE ALSO
chmod(1), chown(2), execve(2), open(2), stat(2), inode(7), path_resolu-
tion(7), symlink(7)
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-06-13 chmod(2)
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