REVOKE(2) BSD System Calls Manual REVOKE(2)NAMErevoke — revoke file access
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
revoke(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The revoke() function invalidates all current open file descriptors in
the system for the file named by path. Subsequent operations on any such
descriptors fail, with the exceptions that a read() from a character
device file which has been revoked returns a count of zero (end of file),
and a close() call will succeed. If the file is a special file for a
device which is open, the device close function is called as if all open
references to the file had been closed.
Access to a file may be revoked only by its owner or the super user. The
revoke() function is currently supported only for block and character
special device files. It is normally used to prepare a terminal device
for a new login session, preventing any access by a previous user of the
terminal.
RETURN VALUES
The revoke() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
error.
ERRORS
Access to the named file is revoked unless one of the following:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or
an entire path name exceeded 1024 characters.
[ENOENT] The named file or a component of the path name does
not exist.
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the
path prefix.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translat‐
ing the pathname.
[EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address
space.
[EINVAL] The implementation does not support the revoke() oper‐
ation on the named file.
[EPERM] The caller is neither the owner of the file nor the
super user.
SEE ALSOclose(2)HISTORY
The revoke() function was introduced in 4.3BSD-Reno.
BSD June 4, 1993 BSD
