revoke(2)

NAME

revoke - revoke file access

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>
int
revoke(const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

The revoke() system call invalidates all current open file

descriptors in
the system for the file named by path. Subsequent opera

tions 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device file which has been revoked returns a count of zero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() system 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 su

per user. The
revoke() system call is currently supported only for block

and character
special device files. It is normally used to prepare a ter

minal 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 fol

lowing:

[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 charac

ters.

[ENOENT] The named file or a component of the path

name does

not exist.

[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a compo

nent of the

path prefix.

[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered

in translat

ing the pathname.

[EFAULT] The path argument points outside the pro

cess's allo

cated 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 ALSO

close(2)

HISTORY

The revoke() system call first appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

BSD June 4, 1993

BSD