dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

utimensat(2)                  System Calls Manual                 utimensat(2)

NAME
       utimensat, futimens - change file timestamps with nanosecond precision

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <fcntl.h>            /* Definition of AT_* constants */
       #include <sys/stat.h>

       int utimensat(int dirfd, const char *pathname,
                     const struct timespec times[_Nullable 2], int flags);
       int futimens(int fd, const struct timespec times[_Nullable 2]);

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

       utimensat():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _ATFILE_SOURCE

       futimens():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       utimensat()  and  futimens()  update  the  timestamps  of  a  file with
       nanosecond precision.  This contrasts with the historical utime(2)  and
       utimes(2),  which permit only second and microsecond precision, respec-
       tively, when setting file timestamps.

       With utimensat() the file is specified via the pathname given in  path-
       name.   With  futimens() the file whose timestamps are to be updated is
       specified via an open file descriptor, fd.

       For both calls, the new file timestamps  are  specified  in  the  array
       times:  times[0] specifies the new "last access time" (atime); times[1]
       specifies the new "last modification time" (mtime).  Each of  the  ele-
       ments  of  times specifies a time as the number of seconds and nanosec-
       onds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC).   This  informa-
       tion is conveyed in a timespec(3) structure.

       Updated  file timestamps are set to the greatest value supported by the
       filesystem that is not greater than the specified time.

       If the tv_nsec field of one of the timespec structures has the  special
       value  UTIME_NOW,  then  the corresponding file timestamp is set to the
       current time.  If the tv_nsec field of one of the  timespec  structures
       has the special value UTIME_OMIT, then the corresponding file timestamp
       is left unchanged.  In both of these cases, the  value  of  the  corre-
       sponding tv_sec field is ignored.

       If times is NULL, then both timestamps are set to the current time.

       The status change time (ctime) will be set to the current time, even if
       the other time stamps don't actually change.

   Permissions requirements
       To set both file timestamps to the current time (i.e., times  is  NULL,
       or both tv_nsec fields specify UTIME_NOW), either:

       •  the caller must have write access to the file;

       •  the caller's effective user ID must match the owner of the file; or

       •  the caller must have appropriate privileges.

       To  make  any  change other than setting both timestamps to the current
       time (i.e., times is not NULL, and neither tv_nsec field  is  UTIME_NOW
       and neither tv_nsec field is UTIME_OMIT), either condition 2 or 3 above
       must apply.

       If both tv_nsec fields are specified as UTIME_OMIT, then no file owner-
       ship  or  permission  checks are performed, and the file timestamps are
       not modified, but other error conditions may still be detected.

   utimensat() specifics
       If pathname is relative, then by default it is interpreted relative  to
       the  directory  referred  to by the open file descriptor, dirfd (rather
       than relative to the current working directory of the calling  process,
       as is done by utimes(2) for a relative pathname).  See openat(2) for an
       explanation of why this can be useful.

       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 utimes(2)).

       If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

       The flags field is a bit mask that may be 0, or include  the  following
       constant, defined in <fcntl.h>:

       AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
              If  pathname  specifies  a  symbolic link, then update the time-
              stamps of the link, rather than the file to which it refers.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, utimensat() and futimens() return 0.  On error, -1  is  re-
       turned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EACCES times is NULL, or both tv_nsec values are UTIME_NOW, and the ef-
              fective user ID of the caller does not match the  owner  of  the
              file, the caller does not have write access to the file, and the
              caller is not  privileged  (Linux:  does  not  have  either  the
              CAP_FOWNER or the CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE capability).

       EBADF  (futimens()) fd is not a valid file descriptor.

       EBADF  (utimensat()) pathname is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD
              nor a valid file descriptor.

       EFAULT times pointed to an invalid address; or, dirfd was AT_FDCWD, and
              pathname is NULL or an invalid address.

       EINVAL Invalid value in flags.

       EINVAL Invalid  value in one of the tv_nsec fields (value outside range
              [0, 999,999,999], and not UTIME_NOW or UTIME_OMIT);  or  an  in-
              valid value in one of the tv_sec fields.

       EINVAL pathname  is  NULL,  dirfd  is  not AT_FDCWD, and flags contains
              AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW.

       ELOOP  (utimensat()) Too many symbolic links were  encountered  in  re-
              solving pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              (utimensat()) pathname is too long.

       ENOENT (utimensat())  A  component of pathname does not refer to an ex-
              isting directory or file, or pathname is an empty string.

       ENOTDIR
              (utimensat()) pathname is a relative pathname, but dirfd is nei-
              ther  AT_FDCWD  nor  a file descriptor referring to a directory;
              or, one of the prefix components of pathname is not a directory.

       EPERM  The caller attempted to change one or both timestamps to a value
              other  than the current time, or to change one of the timestamps
              to the current time while leaving the other timestamp unchanged,
              (i.e.,  times  is  not NULL, neither tv_nsec field is UTIME_NOW,
              and neither tv_nsec field is UTIME_OMIT) and either:

              •  the caller's effective user ID does not match  the  owner  of
                 file,  and the caller is not privileged (Linux: does not have
                 the CAP_FOWNER capability); or,

              •  the file is marked append-only or immutable (see chattr(1)).

       EROFS  The file is on a read-only filesystem.

       ESRCH  (utimensat()) Search permission is denied for one of the  prefix
              components of pathname.

VERSIONS
       utimensat()  was  added  in  Linux 2.6.22; glibc support was added with
       glibc 2.6.

       Support for futimens() first appeared in glibc 2.6.

ATTRIBUTES
       For an  explanation  of  the  terms  used  in  this  section,  see  at-
       tributes(7).

       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │InterfaceAttributeValue   │
       ├────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │utimensat(), futimens()                     │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS
       futimens() and utimensat() are specified in POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES
       utimensat() obsoletes futimesat(2).

       On Linux, timestamps cannot be changed for a file marked immutable, and
       the only change permitted for files marked append-only is  to  set  the
       timestamps  to the current time.  (This is consistent with the histori-
       cal behavior of utime(2) and utimes(2) on Linux.)

       If both tv_nsec fields are specified as UTIME_OMIT, then the Linux  im-
       plementation  of  utimensat()  succeeds even if the file referred to by
       dirfd and pathname does not exist.

   C library/kernel ABI differences
       On Linux, futimens() is a library function implemented on  top  of  the
       utimensat() system call.  To support this, the Linux utimensat() system
       call implements a nonstandard feature: if pathname is  NULL,  then  the
       call  modifies  the  timestamps of the file referred to by the file de-
       scriptor dirfd (which may refer to any type of file).  Using this  fea-
       ture, the call futimens(fd, times) is implemented as:

           utimensat(fd, NULL, times, 0);

       Note, however, that the glibc wrapper for utimensat() disallows passing
       NULL as the value for pathname: the wrapper function returns the  error
       EINVAL in this case.

BUGS
       Several  bugs  afflict  utimensat() and futimens() before Linux 2.6.26.
       These bugs are either nonconformances with the POSIX.1 draft specifica-
       tion or inconsistencies with historical Linux behavior.

       •  POSIX.1  specifies  that  if one of the tv_nsec fields has the value
          UTIME_NOW or UTIME_OMIT, then the value of the corresponding  tv_sec
          field  should be ignored.  Instead, the value of the tv_sec field is
          required to be 0 (or the error EINVAL results).

       •  Various bugs mean that for the purposes of permission checking,  the
          case  where  both  tv_nsec  fields are set to UTIME_NOW isn't always
          treated the same as specifying times as NULL, and the case where one
          tv_nsec value is UTIME_NOW and the other is UTIME_OMIT isn't treated
          the same as specifying times as a pointer to an array of  structures
          containing  arbitrary  time  values.  As a result, in some cases: a)
          file timestamps can be updated by a process that shouldn't have per-
          mission to perform updates; b) file timestamps can't be updated by a
          process that should have permission to perform updates; and  c)  the
          wrong errno value is returned in case of an error.

       •  POSIX.1  says  that  a process that has write access to the file can
          make a call with times as NULL, or with times pointing to  an  array
          of  structures  in which both tv_nsec fields are UTIME_NOW, in order
          to update both timestamps to the current time.  However,  futimens()
          instead checks whether the access mode of the file descriptor allows
          writing.

SEE ALSO
       chattr(1), touch(1), futimesat(2), openat(2), stat(2),  utimes(2),  fu-
       times(3), timespec(3), inode(7), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

Linux man-pages 6.03              2023-02-12                      utimensat(2)

Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Sun Jun 16 21:34:33 CEST 2024.