CHFLAGS(2) BSD Programmer's Manual CHFLAGS(2)NAME
chflags, lchflags, fchflags - set flags of a file or link
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int
chflags(const char *path, unsigned int flags);
int
lchflags(const char *path, unsigned int flags);
int
fchflags(int fd, unsigned int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The file whose name is given by path or referenced by the descriptor fd
has its flags changed to flags. lchflags() operates similarly to
chflags() but does not follow symbolic links. It allows the filesystem
flags of a symbolic link to be set.
The flags specified are formed by OR'ing the following values:
UF_NODUMP Do not dump the file.
UF_IMMUTABLE The file may not be changed.
UF_APPEND The file may only be appended to.
SF_IMMUTABLE The file may not be changed.
SF_APPEND The file may only be appended to.
The UF_IMMUTABLE and UF_APPEND flags may be set or unset by either the
owner of a file or the superuser.
The SF_IMMUTABLE and SF_APPEND flags may only be set or unset by the su-
peruser. They may be set at any time, but normally may only be unset when
the system is in single-user mode. (See init(8) for details.)
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1 is
returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORSchflags() or lchflags() will fail if:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.
[ENOENT] The named file does not exist.
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the path
prefix.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
pathname.
[EPERM] The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file
and the effective user ID is not the superuser, or the ef-
fective user ID is not the superuser and at least one of
the super-user-only flags for the named file would be
changed.
[EOPNOTSUPP] The named file resides on a file system that does not sup-
port file flags.
[EROFS] The named file resides on a read-only file system.
[EFAULT] path points outside the process's allocated address space.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the
file system.
[EINVAL] The flags value is invalid.
[EINVAL] The descriptor references a block or character device and
the effective user ID is not the superuser.
fchflags() will fail if:
[EBADF] The descriptor is not valid.
[EINVAL] fd refers to a socket, not to a file.
[EINVAL] The descriptor references a block or character device and
the effective user ID is not the superuser.
[EINVAL] The flags value is invalid.
[EPERM] The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file
and the effective user ID is not the superuser, or the ef-
fective user ID is not the superuser and at least one of
the super-user-only flags for the named file would be
changed.
[EOPNOTSUPP] The named file resides on a file system that does not sup-
port file flags.
[EROFS] The file resides on a read-only file system.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the
file system.
SEE ALSOchflags(1), init(8)HISTORY
The chflags() and fchflags() functions first appeared in 4.4BSD. The
lchflags() function call appeared in MirOS #10.
MirOS BSD #10-current May 19, 2007 1