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 operations 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       character  device file which has been revoked returns a count of zero (end of file), and a close() system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 super user.  The revoke() system call is
       currently supported only for block and character special device files.  It is normally used to prepare  a
       terminal 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 following:

       [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 characters.

       [ENOENT]           The named file or a component of the path name does not exist.

       [EACCES]           Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

       [ELOOP]            Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

       [EFAULT]           The path argument points outside the process's allocated address space.

       [EINVAL]           The implementation does not support the revoke() operation on the named file.

       [EPERM]            The caller is neither the owner of the file nor the super user.

SEE ALSO

       close(2), revoke(1)

HISTORY

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

Debian                                            June 4, 1993                                         REVOKE(2)