NAME

       setfiles - set SELinux file security contexts.

SYNOPSIS

       setfiles  [-c  policy]  [-d]  [-l]  [-m]  [-n]  [-e directory] [-p] [-s] [-v] [-W] [-F] [-I|-D] spec_file
       pathname ...

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page describes the setfiles program.

       This program is primarily used to initialize the security context fields (extended attributes) on one  or
       more  filesystems  (or  parts  of them).  Usually it is initially run as part of the SELinux installation
       process (a step commonly known as labeling).

       It can also be run at any other time to correct inconsistent labels, to add support  for  newly-installed
       policy  or, by using the -n option, to passively check whether the file contexts are all set as specified
       by the active policy (default behavior) or by some other policy (see the -c option).

       If a file object does not have a context, setfiles will write the default context to  the  file  object's
       extended  attributes.  If  a file object has a context, setfiles will only modify the type portion of the
       security context.  The -F option will force a replacement of the entire context.

OPTIONS

       -c     check the validity of the contexts against the specified binary policy.

       -d     show what specification matched each file (do not abort validation after 10 errors).

       -e directory
              directory to exclude (repeat option for more than one directory).

       -f infilename
              infilename contains a list of files to be processed. Use “-” for stdin.

       -F     Force reset of context to match file_context for customizable files, and the default file context,
              changing the user, role, range portion as well as the type.

       -h, -? display usage information and exit.

       -i     ignore files that do not exist.

       -I     ignore digest to force checking of labels even if the stored SHA1  digest  matches  the  specfiles
              SHA1  digest.  The digest will then be updated provided there are no errors. See the NOTES section
              for further details.

       -D     Set or update any directory SHA1 digests. Use this option to enable usage of  the  security.sehash
              extended attribute.

       -l     log changes in file labels to syslog.

       -m     do  not  read  /proc/mounts to obtain a list of non-seclabel mounts to be excluded from relabeling
              checks.  Setting this option is useful where there is a non-seclabel fs mounted with a seclabel fs
              mounted on a directory below this.

       -n     don't change any file labels (passive check).

       -o outfilename
              Deprecated - This option is no longer supported.

       -p     show progress by printing the number of files in 1k blocks unless relabeling the entire  OS,  that
              will  then  show the approximate percentage complete. Note that the -p and -v options are mutually
              exclusive.

       -q     Deprecated, was only used to stop printing inode association parameters.

       -r rootpath
              use an alternate root path. Used in meta-selinux for  OpenEmbedded/Yocto  builds  to  label  files
              under rootpath as if they were at /

       -s     take  a  list  of  files  from  standard  input  instead of using a pathname from the command line
              (equivalent to “-f -” ).

       -v     show changes in file labels and output any inode association parameters.  Note that the -v and  -p
              options are mutually exclusive.

       -W     display  warnings  about  entries  that  had  no matching files by outputting the selabel_stats(3)
              results.

       -0     the separator for the input items is assumed to be  the  null  character  (instead  of  the  white
              space).   The  quotes  and the backslash characters are also treated as normal characters that can
              form valid input.  This option finally also disables the end of file string, which is treated like
              any other  argument.   Useful  when  input  items  might  contain  white  space,  quote  marks  or
              backslashes.  The -print0 option of GNU find produces input suitable for this mode.

ARGUMENTS

       spec_file
              The specification file which contains lines of the following form:

              regexp [type] context | <<none>>
                     The  regular  expression  is  anchored at both ends.  The optional type field specifies the
                     file type as shown in the mode field by the ls(1) program, e.g.  -- to match  only  regular
                     files  or -d to match only directories.  The context can be an ordinary security context or
                     the string <<none>> to specify that the file is not to have its context changed.
                     The last matching specification is used. If there are multiple hard links to  a  file  that
                     match  different  specifications  and  those  specifications  indicate  different  security
                     contexts, then a warning is displayed but the file is  still  labeled  based  on  the  last
                     matching specification other than <<none>>.

       pathname ...
              The  pathname  for  the root directory of each file system to be relabeled or a specific directory
              within a filesystem that should be recursively descended and relabeled or the pathname of  a  file
              that should be relabeled.  Not used if the -f or the -s option is used.

NOTES

       1.  setfiles follows symbolic links and operates recursively on directories.

       2.  If  the  pathname  specifies  the  root  directory  and  the -v option is set and the audit system is
           running, then an audit event is automatically logged stating that a "mass relabel" took  place  using
           the message label FS_RELABEL.

       3.  To  improve performance when relabeling file systems recursively the -D option to setfiles will cause
           it to store a SHA1 digest of the spec_file set in an extended attribute named security.sehash on each
           directory specified in pathname ...  once the  relabeling  has  been  completed  successfully.  These
           digests  will be checked should setfiles -D be rerun with the same spec_file and pathname parameters.
           See selinux_restorecon(3) for further details.

           The -I option will ignore the SHA1 digest from each directory specified in pathname ...  and provided
           the -n option is NOT set, files will be relabeled as required with the  digests  then  being  updated
           provided there are no errors.

AUTHOR

       This  man  page  was written by Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au>.  The program was written by Stephen
       Smalley <sds@tycho.nsa.gov>

SEE ALSO

       restorecon(8), load_policy(8), checkpolicy(8)

                                                  10 June 2016                                       setfiles(8)