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TRUNCATE(2)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		   TRUNCATE(2)

NAME
       truncate, ftruncate - truncate a file to a specified length

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <sys/types.h>

       int truncate(const char *path, off_t length);
       int ftruncate(int fd, off_t length);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       truncate():
	   _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
	   _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
	   || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L

       ftruncate():
	   _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
	   _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
	   || /* Since glibc 2.3.5: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION
       The  truncate()	and ftruncate() functions cause the regular file named
       by path or referenced by fd to be truncated  to	a  size	 of  precisely
       length bytes.

       If  the	file  previously  was larger than this size, the extra data is
       lost.  If the file previously was shorter,  it  is  extended,  and  the
       extended part reads as null bytes ('\0').

       The file offset is not changed.

       If  the	size  changed,	then the st_ctime and st_mtime fields (respec‐
       tively, time of last status change and time of last  modification;  see
       stat(2)) for the file are updated, and the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
       permission bits may be cleared.

       With ftruncate(), the file must be open for writing;  with  truncate(),
       the file must be writable.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  zero is returned.	On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       For truncate():

       EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path  prefix,
	      or  the  named  file  is	not  writable  by the user.  (See also
	      path_resolution(7).)

       EFAULT Path points outside the process's allocated address space.

       EFBIG  The argument length is larger than the maximum file size. (XSI)

       EINTR  While blocked waiting to complete, the call was interrupted by a
	      signal handler; see fcntl(2) and signal(7).

       EINVAL The  argument length is negative or larger than the maximum file
	      size.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred updating the inode.

       EISDIR The named file is a directory.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links  were  encountered  in  translating  the
	      pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      A	 component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire
	      pathname exceeded 1023 characters.

       ENOENT The named file does not exist.

       ENOTDIR
	      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

       EPERM  The underlying file system does not  support  extending  a  file
	      beyond its current size.

       EROFS  The named file resides on a read-only file system.

       ETXTBSY
	      The  file	 is  a pure procedure (shared text) file that is being
	      executed.

       For ftruncate() the same errors apply, but instead of things  that  can
       be  wrong with path, we now have things that can be wrong with the file
       descriptor, fd:

       EBADF  fd is not a valid descriptor.

       EBADF or EINVAL
	      fd is not open for writing.

       EINVAL fd does not reference a regular file.

CONFORMING TO
       4.4BSD, SVr4, POSIX.1-2001 (these calls first appeared in 4.2BSD).

NOTES
       The details in DESCRIPTION are for XSI-compliant systems.  For non-XSI-
       compliant  systems,  the POSIX standard allows two behaviors for ftrun‐
       cate() when length exceeds the file length (note that truncate() is not
       specified at all in such an environment): either returning an error, or
       extending the file.  Like most UNIX implementations, Linux follows  the
       XSI  requirement	 when dealing with native file systems.	 However, some
       nonnative file systems do not permit truncate() and ftruncate()	to  be
       used  to	 extend a file beyond its current length: a notable example on
       Linux is VFAT.

       The original Linux truncate() and ftruncate()  system  calls  were  not
       designed	 to  handle large file offsets.	 Consequently, Linux 2.4 added
       truncate64() and ftruncate64() system calls that	 handle	 large	files.
       However,	 these	details	 can  be  ignored by applications using glibc,
       whose wrapper functions transparently employ  the  more	recent	system
       calls where they are available.

       On  some	 32-bit	 architectures, the calling signature for these system
       calls differ, for the reasons described in syscall(2).

BUGS
       A header file bug in  glibc  2.12  meant	 that  the  minimum  value  of
       _POSIX_C_SOURCE	required  to expose the declaration of ftruncate() was
       200809L instead of 200112L.  This has been fixed in  later  glibc  ver‐
       sions.

SEE ALSO
       open(2), stat(2), path_resolution(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux				  2013-04-01			   TRUNCATE(2)
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