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NAME
truncate, ftruncate - truncate a file to a specified length
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
int truncate(const char *path, off_t length);
int ftruncate(int fd, off_t length);
DESCRIPTION
The truncate() and ftruncate() functions cause the regular file named
by path or referenced by fd to be truncated to a size of precisely
length bytes.
If the file previously was larger than this size, the extra data is
lost. If the file previously was shorter, it is extended, and the
extended part reads as null bytes (’\0’).
The file offset is not changed.
If the size changed, then the st_ctime and st_mtime fields (respec‐
tively, time of last status change and time of last modification; see
stat(2)) for the file are updated, and the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
permission bits may be cleared.
With ftruncate(), the file must be open for writing; with truncate(),
the file must be writable.
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set appropriately.
ERRORS
For truncate():
EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix,
or the named file is not writable by the user. (See also
path_resolution(7).)
EFAULT Path points outside the process’s allocated address space.
EFBIG The argument length is larger than the maximum file size. (XSI)
EINTR A signal was caught during execution.
EINVAL The argument length is negative or larger than the maximum file
size.
EIO An I/O error occurred updating the inode.
EISDIR The named file is a directory.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
pathname.
ENAMETOOLONG
A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire
pathname exceeded 1023 characters.
ENOENT The named file does not exist.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
EPERM The underlying file system does not support extending a file
beyond its current size.
EROFS The named file resides on a read-only file system.
ETXTBSY
The file is a pure procedure (shared text) file that is being
executed.
For ftruncate() the same errors apply, but instead of things that can
be wrong with path, we now have things that can be wrong with fd:
EBADF The fd is not a valid descriptor.
EBADF or EINVAL
The fd is not open for writing.
EINVAL The fd does not reference a regular file.
4.4BSD, SVr4, POSIX.1-2001 (these calls first appeared in 4.2BSD).
NOTES
The above description is for XSI-compliant systems. For non-XSI-com‐
pliant systems, the POSIX standard allows two behaviors for ftruncate()
when length exceeds the file length (note that truncate() is not speci‐
fied at all in such an environment): either returning an error, or
extending the file. Like most Unix implementations, Linux follows the
XSI requirement when dealing with native file systems. However, some
non-native file systems do not permit truncate() and ftruncate() to be
used to extend a file beyond its current length: a notable example on
Linux is VFAT.
open(2), stat(2), path_resolution(7)