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+.\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
+.\" and Copyright (C) 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson.
+.\" and Copyright (C) 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
+.\"
+.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
+.\"
+.\" Modified 1993-07-21 Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)
+.\" Modified 1994-08-21 by Michael Chastain (mec@shell.portal.com):
+.\" Removed note about old kernel (pre-1.1.44) using wrong id on path.
+.\" Modified 1996-03-18 by Martin Schulze (joey@infodrom.north.de):
+.\" Stated more clearly how it behaves with symbolic links.
+.\" Added correction due to Nick Duffek (nsd@bbc.com), aeb, 960426
+.\" Modified 1996-09-07 by Michael Haardt:
+.\" Restrictions for NFS
+.\" Modified 1997-09-09 by Joseph S. Myers <jsm28@cam.ac.uk>
+.\" Modified 1998-01-13 by Michael Haardt:
+.\" Using access is often insecure
+.\" Modified 2001-10-16 by aeb
+.\" Modified 2002-04-23 by Roger Luethi <rl@hellgate.ch>
+.\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk
+.\" 2007-06-10, mtk, various parts rewritten, and added BUGS section.
+.\"
+.TH access 2 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages (unreleased)"
+.SH NAME
+access, faccessat, faccessat2 \- check user's permissions for a file
+.SH LIBRARY
+Standard C library
+.RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.nf
+.B #include <unistd.h>
+.P
+.BI "int access(const char *" pathname ", int " mode );
+.P
+.BR "#include <fcntl.h>" " /* Definition of " AT_* " constants */"
+.B #include <unistd.h>
+.P
+.BI "int faccessat(int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ", int " \
+mode ", int " flags );
+ /* But see C library/kernel differences, below */
+.P
+.BR "#include <fcntl.h>" " /* Definition of " AT_* " constants */"
+.BR "#include <sys/syscall.h>" " /* Definition of " SYS_* " constants */"
+.B #include <unistd.h>
+.P
+.B int syscall(SYS_faccessat2,
+.BI " int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ", int " mode \
+", int " flags );
+.fi
+.P
+.RS -4
+Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
+.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
+.RE
+.P
+.BR faccessat ():
+.nf
+ Since glibc 2.10:
+ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
+ Before glibc 2.10:
+ _ATFILE_SOURCE
+.fi
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.BR access ()
+checks whether the calling process can access the file
+.IR pathname .
+If
+.I pathname
+is a symbolic link, it is dereferenced.
+.P
+The
+.I mode
+specifies the accessibility check(s) to be performed,
+and is either the value
+.BR F_OK ,
+.\" F_OK is defined as 0 on every system that I know of.
+or a mask consisting of the bitwise OR of one or more of
+.BR R_OK ", " W_OK ", and " X_OK .
+.B F_OK
+tests for the existence of the file.
+.BR R_OK ", " W_OK ", and " X_OK
+test whether the file exists and grants read, write, and
+execute permissions, respectively.
+.P
+The check is done using the calling process's
+.I real
+UID and GID, rather than the effective IDs as is done when
+actually attempting an operation (e.g.,
+.BR open (2))
+on the file.
+Similarly, for the root user, the check uses the set of
+permitted capabilities rather than the set of effective
+capabilities; and for non-root users, the check uses an empty set
+of capabilities.
+.P
+This allows set-user-ID programs and capability-endowed programs
+to easily determine the invoking user's authority.
+In other words,
+.BR access ()
+does not answer the "can I read/write/execute this file?" question.
+It answers a slightly different question:
+"(assuming I'm a setuid binary) can
+.I the user who invoked me
+read/write/execute this file?",
+which gives set-user-ID programs the possibility to
+prevent malicious users from causing them to read files
+which users shouldn't be able to read.
+.P
+If the calling process is privileged (i.e., its real UID is zero),
+then an
+.B X_OK
+check is successful for a regular file if execute permission
+is enabled for any of the file owner, group, or other.
+.SS faccessat()
+.BR faccessat ()
+operates in exactly the same way as
+.BR access (),
+except for the differences described here.
+.P
+If the pathname given in
+.I pathname
+is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory
+referred to by the file descriptor
+.I dirfd
+(rather than relative to the current working directory of
+the calling process, as is done by
+.BR access ()
+for a relative pathname).
+.P
+If
+.I pathname
+is relative and
+.I dirfd
+is the special value
+.BR AT_FDCWD ,
+then
+.I pathname
+is interpreted relative to the current working
+directory of the calling process (like
+.BR access ()).
+.P
+If
+.I pathname
+is absolute, then
+.I dirfd
+is ignored.
+.P
+.I flags
+is constructed by ORing together zero or more of the following values:
+.TP
+.B AT_EACCESS
+Perform access checks using the effective user and group IDs.
+By default,
+.BR faccessat ()
+uses the real IDs (like
+.BR access ()).
+.TP
+.BR AT_EMPTY_PATH " (since Linux 5.8)"
+If
+.I pathname
+is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by
+.I dirfd
+(which may have been obtained using the
+.BR open (2)
+.B O_PATH
+flag).
+In this case,
+.I dirfd
+can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.
+If
+.I dirfd
+is
+.BR AT_FDCWD ,
+the call operates on the current working directory.
+This flag is Linux-specific; define
+.B _GNU_SOURCE
+to obtain its definition.
+.TP
+.B AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
+If
+.I pathname
+is a symbolic link, do not dereference it:
+instead return information about the link itself.
+.P
+See
+.BR openat (2)
+for an explanation of the need for
+.BR faccessat ().
+.\"
+.SS faccessat2()
+The description of
+.BR faccessat ()
+given above corresponds to POSIX.1 and
+to the implementation provided by glibc.
+However, the glibc implementation was an imperfect emulation (see BUGS)
+that papered over the fact that the raw Linux
+.BR faccessat ()
+system call does not have a
+.I flags
+argument.
+To allow for a proper implementation, Linux 5.8 added the
+.BR faccessat2 ()
+system call, which supports the
+.I flags
+argument and allows a correct implementation of the
+.BR faccessat ()
+wrapper function.
+.SH RETURN VALUE
+On success (all requested permissions granted, or
+.I mode
+is
+.B F_OK
+and the file exists), zero is returned.
+On error (at least one bit in
+.I mode
+asked for a permission that is denied, or
+.I mode
+is
+.B F_OK
+and the file does not exist, or some other error occurred),
+\-1 is returned, and
+.I errno
+is set to indicate the error.
+.SH ERRORS
+.TP
+.B EACCES
+The requested access would be denied to the file, or search permission
+is denied for one of the directories in the path prefix of
+.IR pathname .
+(See also
+.BR path_resolution (7).)
+.TP
+.B EBADF
+.RB ( faccessat ())
+.I pathname
+is relative but
+.I dirfd
+is neither
+.B AT_FDCWD
+.RB ( faccessat ())
+nor a valid file descriptor.
+.TP
+.B EFAULT
+.I pathname
+points outside your accessible address space.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.I mode
+was incorrectly specified.
+.TP
+.B EINVAL
+.RB ( faccessat ())
+Invalid flag specified in
+.IR flags .
+.TP
+.B EIO
+An I/O error occurred.
+.TP
+.B ELOOP
+Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving
+.IR pathname .
+.TP
+.B ENAMETOOLONG
+.I pathname
+is too long.
+.TP
+.B ENOENT
+A component of
+.I pathname
+does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.
+.TP
+.B ENOMEM
+Insufficient kernel memory was available.
+.TP
+.B ENOTDIR
+A component used as a directory in
+.I pathname
+is not, in fact, a directory.
+.TP
+.B ENOTDIR
+.RB ( faccessat ())
+.I pathname
+is relative and
+.I dirfd
+is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
+.TP
+.B EPERM
+Write permission was requested to a file that has the immutable flag set.
+See also
+.BR ioctl_iflags (2).
+.TP
+.B EROFS
+Write permission was requested for a file on a read-only filesystem.
+.TP
+.B ETXTBSY
+Write access was requested to an executable which is being
+executed.
+.SH VERSIONS
+If the calling process has appropriate privileges (i.e., is superuser),
+POSIX.1-2001 permits an implementation to indicate success for an
+.B X_OK
+check even if none of the execute file permission bits are set.
+.\" HPU-UX 11 and Tru64 5.1 do this.
+Linux does not do this.
+.\"
+.SS C library/kernel differences
+The raw
+.BR faccessat ()
+system call takes only the first three arguments.
+The
+.B AT_EACCESS
+and
+.B AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
+flags are actually implemented within the glibc wrapper function for
+.BR faccessat ().
+If either of these flags is specified, then the wrapper function employs
+.BR fstatat (2)
+to determine access permissions, but see BUGS.
+.\"
+.SS glibc notes
+On older kernels where
+.BR faccessat ()
+is unavailable (and when the
+.B AT_EACCESS
+and
+.B AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
+flags are not specified),
+the glibc wrapper function falls back to the use of
+.BR access ().
+When
+.I pathname
+is a relative pathname,
+glibc constructs a pathname based on the symbolic link in
+.I /proc/self/fd
+that corresponds to the
+.I dirfd
+argument.
+.SH STANDARDS
+.TP
+.BR access ()
+.TQ
+.BR faccessat ()
+POSIX.1-2008.
+.TP
+.BR faccessat2 ()
+Linux.
+.SH HISTORY
+.TP
+.BR access ()
+SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
+.TP
+.BR faccessat ()
+Linux 2.6.16,
+glibc 2.4.
+.TP
+.BR faccessat2 ()
+Linux 5.8.
+.SH NOTES
+.BR Warning :
+Using these calls to check if a user is authorized to, for example,
+open a file before actually doing so using
+.BR open (2)
+creates a security hole, because the user might exploit the short time
+interval between checking and opening the file to manipulate it.
+.BR "For this reason, the use of this system call should be avoided" .
+(In the example just described,
+a safer alternative would be to temporarily switch the process's
+effective user ID to the real ID and then call
+.BR open (2).)
+.P
+.BR access ()
+always dereferences symbolic links.
+If you need to check the permissions on a symbolic link, use
+.BR faccessat ()
+with the flag
+.BR AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW .
+.P
+These calls return an error if any of the access types in
+.I mode
+is denied, even if some of the other access types in
+.I mode
+are permitted.
+.P
+A file is accessible only if the permissions on each of the
+directories in the path prefix of
+.I pathname
+grant search (i.e., execute) access.
+If any directory is inaccessible, then the
+.BR access ()
+call fails, regardless of the permissions on the file itself.
+.P
+Only access bits are checked, not the file type or contents.
+Therefore, if a directory is found to be writable,
+it probably means that files can be created in the directory,
+and not that the directory can be written as a file.
+Similarly, a DOS file may be reported as executable, but the
+.BR execve (2)
+call will still fail.
+.P
+These calls
+may not work correctly on NFSv2 filesystems with UID mapping enabled,
+because UID mapping is done on the server and hidden from the client,
+which checks permissions.
+(NFS versions 3 and higher perform the check on the server.)
+Similar problems can occur to FUSE mounts.
+.\"
+.SH BUGS
+Because the Linux kernel's
+.BR faccessat ()
+system call does not support a
+.I flags
+argument, the glibc
+.BR faccessat ()
+wrapper function provided in glibc 2.32 and earlier
+emulates the required functionality using
+a combination of the
+.BR faccessat ()
+system call and
+.BR fstatat (2).
+However, this emulation does not take ACLs into account.
+Starting with glibc 2.33, the wrapper function avoids this bug
+by making use of the
+.BR faccessat2 ()
+system call where it is provided by the underlying kernel.
+.P
+In Linux 2.4 (and earlier) there is some strangeness in the handling of
+.B X_OK
+tests for superuser.
+If all categories of execute permission are disabled
+for a nondirectory file, then the only
+.BR access ()
+test that returns \-1 is when
+.I mode
+is specified as just
+.BR X_OK ;
+if
+.B R_OK
+or
+.B W_OK
+is also specified in
+.IR mode ,
+then
+.BR access ()
+returns 0 for such files.
+.\" This behavior appears to have been an implementation accident.
+Early Linux 2.6 (up to and including Linux 2.6.3)
+also behaved in the same way as Linux 2.4.
+.P
+Before Linux 2.6.20,
+these calls ignored the effect of the
+.B MS_NOEXEC
+flag if it was used to
+.BR mount (2)
+the underlying filesystem.
+Since Linux 2.6.20, the
+.B MS_NOEXEC
+flag is honored.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR chmod (2),
+.BR chown (2),
+.BR open (2),
+.BR setgid (2),
+.BR setuid (2),
+.BR stat (2),
+.BR euidaccess (3),
+.BR credentials (7),
+.BR path_resolution (7),
+.BR symlink (7)