Open System Services System Calls Reference Manual (G06.29+, H06.08+, J06.03+)
System Functions (f - i) fchown(2)
NAME
fchown - Changes the owner and group IDs of a file
LIBRARY
G-series native Guardian processes: system library
G-series native OSS processes: system library
H-series and J-series native Guardian processes: implicit libraries
H-series and J-series OSS processes: implicit libraries
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> /* optional except for POSIX.1 */
#include <unistd.h>
int fchown(
int filedes,
uid_t owner,
gid_t group);
PARAMETERS
filedes Specifies a valid file descriptor.
owner Specifies a numeric value representing the owner ID.
group Specifies a numeric value representing the group ID.
DESCRIPTION
The fchown() function changes the owner and group of a file pointed to by the filedes parameter.
The fchown() function is like the chown() function except that it operates on a file descriptor
instead of a pathname.
Only a process that has an effective user ID equal to the super ID or to the file owner, or that has
an effective user ID or group affiliation qualifying for membership in the Safeguard
SECURITY-OSS-ADMINISTRATOR group can use the fchown( ) function to change the group
of a file. However, processes that have an effective user ID equal to the file owner can only
change the group of a file to a group to which they belong (their effective group or one of their
supplementary groups).
If the fchown( ) function is invoked by a process whose effective user ID does not equal the
super ID, the set-user-ID and set-group-ID bits of the file mode (04000 and 02000, respectively)
are cleared.
See also "Accessing Files in Restricted-Access Filesets."
A process can change the value of the owner ID of an OSS file only if the effective user ID of the
process gives the process appropriate privileges. A process can change the value of the file
group ID if the effective user ID of the process matches the owner ID of the file or the process
has appropriate privileges. A process without appropriate privileges can change the group ID of
a file only to the value of its effective group ID or to a value in its group list. However, if the
fchown() function is successfully invoked on a file, the S_ISGID and S_ISUID bits of the
st_mode field of the stat structure are cleared unless the user has appropriate privileges.
The _POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED feature is enforced for any file in the OSS file system.
Only processes with appropriate privileges can change owner IDs.
If the owner or group parameter is specified as -1 cast to the type of uid_t or gid_t, respectively,
the corresponding ID of the file is unchanged. To change only one attribute, specify the other as
-1.
Upon successful completion, the fchown( ) function marks the st_ctime field of the file for
update.
527186-023 Hewlett-Packard Company 3−7