.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)chmod.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/chmod.2,v 1.16.2.7 2001/12/14 18:34:00 ru Exp $ .\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/sys/chmod.2,v 1.3 2004/03/11 12:28:51 hmp Exp $ .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt CHMOD 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm chmod , .Nm fchmod , .Nm lchmod .Nd change mode of file .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/stat.h .Ft int .Fn chmod "const char *path" "mode_t mode" .Ft int .Fn fchmod "int fd" "mode_t mode" .Ft int .Fn lchmod "const char *path" "mode_t mode" .Sh DESCRIPTION The file permission bits of the file named specified by .Fa path or referenced by the file descriptor .Fa fd are changed to .Fa mode . The .Fn chmod function verifies that the process owner (user) either owns the file specified by .Fa path (or .Fa fd ) , or is the super-user. The .Fn chmod function follows symbolic links to operate on the target of the link rather than the link itself. .Pp The .Fa lchmod function is similar to .Fn chmod but does not follow symbolic links. .Pp A mode is created from .Em or'd permission bit masks defined in .Aq Pa sys/stat.h : .Pp .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact #define S_IRWXU 0000700 /* RWX mask for owner */ #define S_IRUSR 0000400 /* R for owner */ #define S_IWUSR 0000200 /* W for owner */ #define S_IXUSR 0000100 /* X for owner */ #define S_IRWXG 0000070 /* RWX mask for group */ #define S_IRGRP 0000040 /* R for group */ #define S_IWGRP 0000020 /* W for group */ #define S_IXGRP 0000010 /* X for group */ #define S_IRWXO 0000007 /* RWX mask for other */ #define S_IROTH 0000004 /* R for other */ #define S_IWOTH 0000002 /* W for other */ #define S_IXOTH 0000001 /* X for other */ #define S_ISUID 0004000 /* set user id on execution */ #define S_ISGID 0002000 /* set group id on execution */ #define S_ISVTX 0001000 /* sticky bit */ #ifndef _POSIX_SOURCE #define S_ISTXT 0001000 #endif .Ed .Pp The .Dx VM system totally ignores the sticky bit .Pq Dv ISVTX for executables. On UFS-based filesystems (FFS, MFS, LFS) the sticky bit may only be set upon directories. .Pp If mode .Dv ISVTX (the `sticky bit') is set on a directory, an unprivileged user may not delete or rename files of other users in that directory. The sticky bit may be set by any user on a directory which the user owns or has appropriate permissions. For more details of the properties of the sticky bit, see .Xr sticky 8 . .Pp If mode ISUID (set UID) is set on a directory, and the MNT_SUIDDIR option was used in the mount of the filesystem, then the owner of any new files and sub-directories created within this directory are set to be the same as the owner of that directory. If this function is enabled, new directories will inherit the bit from their parents. Execute bits are removed from the file, and it will not be given to root. This behavior does not change the requirements for the user to be allowed to write the file, but only the eventual owner after it has been created. Group inheritance is not affected. .Pp This feature is designed for use on fileservers serving PC users via ftp, SAMBA, or netatalk. It provides security holes for shell users and as such should not be used on shell machines, especially on home directories. This option requires the SUIDDIR option in the kernel to work. Only UFS filesystems support this option. For more details of the suiddir mount option, see .Xr mount 8 . .Pp Writing or changing the owner of a file turns off the set-user-id and set-group-id bits unless the user is the super-user. This makes the system somewhat more secure by protecting set-user-id (set-group-id) files from remaining set-user-id (set-group-id) if they are modified, at the expense of a degree of compatibility. .Sh RETURN VALUES .Rv -std .Sh ERRORS .Fn Chmod will fail and the file mode will be unchanged if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT The named file does not exist. .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er EPERM The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and the effective user ID is not the super-user. .It Bq Er EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa Path points outside the process's allocated address space. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Bq Er EFTYPE An attempt was made to set the sticky bit upon an executable. .El .Pp .Fn Fchmod will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The descriptor is not valid. .It Bq Er EINVAL .Fa fd refers to a socket, not to a file. .It Bq Er EROFS The file resides on a read-only file system. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chmod 1 , .Xr chown 2 , .Xr open 2 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr sticky 8 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn chmod function call is expected to conform to .St -p1003.1-90 , except for the return of .Er EFTYPE and the use of .Dv S_ISTXT . .Sh HISTORY A .Fn chmod function call appeared in .At v7 . The .Fn fchmod function call appeared in .Bx 4.2 . The .Fn lchmod function call appeared in .Fx 3.0 .