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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
futimens, utimensat, utimes — set file access and modification times
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int futimens(int fd, const struct timespec times[2]);
int utimensat(int fd, const char *path, const struct timespec times[2],
int flag);
#include <sys/time.h>
int utimes(const char *path, const struct timeval times[2]);
DESCRIPTION
The futimens() and utimensat() functions shall set the access and modification times of a file to the
values of the times argument. The futimens() function changes the times of the file associated with the
file descriptor fd. The utimensat() function changes the times of the file pointed to by the path
argument, relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd. Both functions allow time
specifications accurate to the nanosecond.
For futimens() and utimensat(), the times argument is an array of two timespec structures. The first
array member represents the date and time of last access, and the second member represents the date and
time of last modification. The times in the timespec structure are measured in seconds and nanoseconds
since the Epoch. The file's relevant timestamp shall be set to the greatest value supported by the file
system that is not greater than the specified time.
If the tv_nsec field of a timespec structure has the special value UTIME_NOW, the file's relevant
timestamp shall be set to the greatest value supported by the file system that is not greater than the
current time. If the tv_nsec field has the special value UTIME_OMIT, the file's relevant timestamp shall
not be changed. In either case, the tv_sec field shall be ignored.
If the times argument is a null pointer, both the access and modification timestamps shall be set to the
greatest value supported by the file system that is not greater than the current time. If utimensat() is
passed a relative path in the path argument, the file to be used shall be relative to the directory
associated with the file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory. If the file descriptor
was opened without O_SEARCH, the function shall check whether directory searches are permitted using the
current permissions of the directory underlying the file descriptor. If the file descriptor was opened
with O_SEARCH, the function shall not perform the check.
If utimensat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory
shall be used.
Only a process with the effective user ID equal to the user ID of the file, or with write access to the
file, or with appropriate privileges may use futimens() or utimensat() with a null pointer as the times
argument or with both tv_nsec fields set to the special value UTIME_NOW. Only a process with the
effective user ID equal to the user ID of the file or with appropriate privileges may use futimens() or
utimensat() with a non-null times argument that does not have both tv_nsec fields set to UTIME_NOW and
does not have both tv_nsec fields set to UTIME_OMIT. If both tv_nsec fields are set to UTIME_OMIT, no
ownership or permissions check shall be performed for the file, but other error conditions may still be
detected (including [EACCES] errors related to the path prefix).
Values for the flag argument of utimensat() are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the
following list, defined in <fcntl.h>:
AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
If path names a symbolic link, then the access and modification times of the symbolic link are
changed.
Upon completion, futimens() and utimensat() shall mark the last file status change timestamp for update.
The utimes() function shall be equivalent to the utimensat() function with the special value AT_FDCWD as
the fd argument and the flag argument set to zero, except that the times argument is a timeval structure
rather than a timespec structure, and accuracy is only to the microsecond, not nanosecond, and rounding
towards the nearest second may occur.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return 0. Otherwise, these functions shall return −1
and set errno to indicate the error. If −1 is returned, the file times shall not be affected.
ERRORS
These functions shall fail if:
EACCES The times argument is a null pointer, or both tv_nsec values are UTIME_NOW, and the effective user
ID of the process does not match the owner of the file and write access is denied.
EINVAL Either of the times argument structures specified a tv_nsec value that was neither UTIME_NOW nor
UTIME_OMIT, and was a value less than zero or greater than or equal to 1000 million.
EINVAL A new file timestamp would be a value whose tv_sec component is not a value supported by the file
system.
EPERM The times argument is not a null pointer, does not have both tv_nsec fields set to UTIME_NOW, does
not have both tv_nsec fields set to UTIME_OMIT, the calling process' effective user ID does not
match the owner of the file, and the calling process does not have appropriate privileges.
EROFS The file system containing the file is read-only.
The futimens() function shall fail if:
EBADF The fd argument is not a valid file descriptor.
The utimensat() function shall fail if:
EACCES fd was not opened with O_SEARCH and the permissions of the directory underlying fd do not permit
directory searches.
EBADF The path argument does not specify an absolute path and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a
valid file descriptor open for reading or searching.
ENOTDIR
The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is a file descriptor associated with a non-
directory file.
The utimensat() and utimes() functions shall fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied by a component of the path prefix.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic
link to a directory, or the path argument contains at least one non-<slash> character and ends
with one or more trailing <slash> characters and the last pathname component names an existing
file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
The utimensat() and utimes() functions may fail if:
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an
intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
The utimensat() function may fail if:
EINVAL The value of the flag argument is not valid.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The purpose of the utimensat() function is to set the access and modification time of files in
directories other than the current working directory without exposure to race conditions. Any part of the
path of a file could be changed in parallel to a call to utimes(), resulting in unspecified behavior. By
opening a file descriptor for the target directory and using the utimensat() function it can be
guaranteed that the changed file is located relative to the desired directory.
The standard developers considered including a special case for the permissions required by utimensat()
when one tv_nsec field is UTIME_NOW and the other is UTIME_OMIT. One possibility would be to include this
case in with the cases where times is a null pointer or both fields are UTIME_NOW, where the call is
allowed if the process has write permission for the file. However, associating write permission with an
update to just the last data access timestamp (which is normally updated by read()) did not seem
appropriate. The other possibility would be to specify that this one case is allowed if the process has
read permission, but this was felt to be too great a departure from the utime() and utimes() functions on
which utimensat() is based. If an application needs to set the last data access timestamp to the current
time for a file on which it has read permission but is not the owner, it can do so by opening the file,
reading one or more bytes (or reading a directory entry, if the file is a directory), and then closing
it.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
read(), utime()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <fcntl.h>, <sys_stat.h>, <sys_time.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .