(libc.info.gz) File Owner

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 14.9.4 File Owner
 -----------------
 
 Every file has an "owner" which is one of the registered user names
 defined on the system.  Each file also has a "group" which is one of the
 defined groups.  The file owner can often be useful for showing you who
 edited the file (especially when you edit with GNU Emacs), but its main
 purpose is for access control.
 
    The file owner and group play a role in determining access because
 the file has one set of access permission bits for the owner, another
 set that applies to users who belong to the file's group, and a third
 set of bits that applies to everyone else.   Access Permission,
 for the details of how access is decided based on this data.
 
    When a file is created, its owner is set to the effective user ID of
 the process that creates it ( Process Persona).  The file's group
 ID may be set to either the effective group ID of the process, or the
 group ID of the directory that contains the file, depending on the
 system where the file is stored.  When you access a remote file system,
 it behaves according to its own rules, not according to the system your
 program is running on.  Thus, your program must be prepared to encounter
 either kind of behavior no matter what kind of system you run it on.
 
    You can change the owner and/or group owner of an existing file using
 the 'chown' function.  This is the primitive for the 'chown' and 'chgrp'
 shell commands.
 
    The prototype for this function is declared in 'unistd.h'.
 
  -- Function: int chown (const char *FILENAME, uid_t OWNER, gid_t GROUP)
      Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe |  POSIX Safety
      Concepts.
 
      The 'chown' function changes the owner of the file FILENAME to
      OWNER, and its group owner to GROUP.
 
      Changing the owner of the file on certain systems clears the
      set-user-ID and set-group-ID permission bits.  (This is because
      those bits may not be appropriate for the new owner.)  Other file
      permission bits are not changed.
 
      The return value is '0' on success and '-1' on failure.  In
      addition to the usual file name errors ( File Name Errors),
      the following 'errno' error conditions are defined for this
      function:
 
      'EPERM'
           This process lacks permission to make the requested change.
 
           Only privileged users or the file's owner can change the
           file's group.  On most file systems, only privileged users can
           change the file owner; some file systems allow you to change
           the owner if you are currently the owner.  When you access a
           remote file system, the behavior you encounter is determined
           by the system that actually holds the file, not by the system
           your program is running on.
 
            Options for Files, for information about the
           '_POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED' macro.
 
      'EROFS'
           The file is on a read-only file system.
 
  -- Function: int fchown (int FILEDES, uid_t OWNER, gid_t GROUP)
      Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe |  POSIX Safety
      Concepts.
 
      This is like 'chown', except that it changes the owner of the open
      file with descriptor FILEDES.
 
      The return value from 'fchown' is '0' on success and '-1' on
      failure.  The following 'errno' error codes are defined for this
      function:
 
      'EBADF'
           The FILEDES argument is not a valid file descriptor.
 
      'EINVAL'
           The FILEDES argument corresponds to a pipe or socket, not an
           ordinary file.
 
      'EPERM'
           This process lacks permission to make the requested change.
           For details see 'chmod' above.
 
      'EROFS'
           The file resides on a read-only file system.
 

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