Copyright (c) 1989, 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.
@(#)chflags.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
.Dd June 9, 1993 .Dt CHFLAGS 2 .Os BSD 4.4 .Sh NAME .Nm chflags , .Nm fchflags .Nd set file flags .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include <sys/stat.h> .Fd #include <unistd.h> .Ft int .Fn chflags "const char *path" "u_long flags" .Ft int .Fn fchflags "int fd" "u_long flags" .Sh DESCRIPTION The file whose name is given by .Fa path or referenced by the descriptor .Fa fd has its flags changed to .Fa flags .
p The flags specified are formed by .Em or Ns 'ing the following values
p
l -tag -width "SF_IMMUTABLE" -compact -offset indent t UF_NODUMP Do not dump the file.
t UF_IMMUTABLE The file may not be changed.
t UF_APPEND The file may only be appended to.
.It ARCHIVED
File is archived.
t SF_IMMUTABLE The file may not be changed.
t SF_APPEND The file may only be appended to.
.El
p The .Dq UF_IMMUTABLE and .Dq UF_APPEND flags may be set or unset by either the owner of a file or the super-user.
p The .Dq SF_IMMUTABLE and .Dq SF_APPEND flags may only be set or unset by the super-user. They may be set at any time, but normally may only be unset when the system is in single-user mode. (See .Xr init 8 for details.) .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1 is returned and the global variable .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Fn Chflags will fail it: l -tag -width Er t Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. t Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded .Dv {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded .Dv {PATH_MAX} characters. t Bq Er ENOENT The named file does not exist. t Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. t Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. t 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. t Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP The named file resides on a file system that does not support file flags. t Bq Er EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system. t Bq Er EFAULT .Fa Path points outside the process's allocated address space. t Bq Er EIO An .Tn I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .El
p .Fn Fchflags will fail if: l -tag -width Er t Bq Er EBADF The descriptor is not valid. t Bq Er EINVAL .Fa Fd refers to a socket, not to a file. t 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. t Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP The file resides on a file system that does not support file flags. t Bq Er EROFS The file resides on a read-only file system. t Bq Er EIO An .Tn I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chflags 1 , .Xr init 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn chflags and .Nm fchflags functions first appeared in 4.4BSD.
Indexes created Thu Oct 02 14:10:14 GMT 2025