CHMOD(2)

NAME
chmod, fchmod - change permissions of a file

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

int chmod(const char *path, mode_t mode);
int fchmod(int fildes, mode_t mode);

DESCRIPTION
The mode of the file given by path or referenced by fildes is changed. Modes are specified by or'ing the following:

    S_ISUID
        04000 set user ID on execution

    S_ISGID
        02000 set group ID on execution

    S_ISVTX
        01000 sticky bit

    S_IRUSR (S_IREAD)
        00400 read by owner

    S_IWUSR (S_IWRITE)
        00200 write by owner

    S_IXUSR (S_IEXEC)
        00100 execute/search by owner

    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 process must be zero or must match the owner of the file. If the effective UID of the process is not zero and the group of the file does not match the effective 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. Depending on the file system, set user ID and set group ID execution bits may be turned off if a file is written. On some file systems, only the super-user 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 stat(2). On NFS file systems, restricting the permissions will immediately influence already open files, because the access control is done on the server, but open files are maintained by the client. Widening the permissions may be delayed for other clients if attribute caching is enabled on them.

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

ERRORS
Depending on the file system, other errors can be returned. The more general errors for chmod are listed below:

EPERM
    The effective UID does not match the owner of the file, and is not zero.

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

EFAULT
    path points outside your accessible address space.

ENAMETOOLONG
    path 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.

EACCES
    Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.

ELOOP
    Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.

EIO An I/O error occurred.

The general errors for fchmod are listed below:

EBADF
    The file descriptor fildes is not valid.

EROFS
    See above.

EPERM
    See above.

EIO See above.

CONFORMING TO
The chmod call conforms to SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, 4.4BSD. SVr4 documents EINTR, ENOLINK and EMULTIHOP returns, but no ENOMEM. POSIX.1 does not document EFAULT, ENOMEM, ELOOP or EIO error conditions, or the macros S_IREAD, S_IWRITE and S_IEXEC.

The fchmod call conforms to 4.4BSD and SVr4. SVr4 documents additional EINTR and ENOLINK error conditions. POSIX requires the fchmod function if at least one of _POSIX_MAPPED_FILES and _POSIX_SHARED_MEMORY_OBJECTS is defined, and documents additional ENOSYS and EINVAL error conditions, but does not document EIO.

POSIX and X/OPEN do not document the sticky bit.

SEE ALSO
open(2), chown(2), execve(2), stat(2)