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NAME

       utimensat, futimens - change file timestamps with nanosecond precision

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/stat.h>

       int utimensat(int dirfd, const char *pathname,
                     const struct timespec times[2], int flags);

       int futimens(int fd, const struct timespec times[2]);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       utimensat():
       Since glibc 2.10: _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
       Before glibc 2.10: _ATFILE_SOURCE
       futimens():
       Since glibc 2.10: _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
       Before glibc 2.10: _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       utimensat()  and  futimens()  update  the  timestamps  of  a  file with
       nanosecond precision.  This contrasts with the historical utime(2)  and
       utimes(2),   which   permit  only  second  and  microsecond  precision,
       respectively, when setting file timestamps.

       With utimensat() the file  is  specified  via  the  pathname  given  in
       pathname.   With futimens() the file whose timestamps are to be updated
       is specified via an open file descriptor, fd.

       For both calls, the new file timestamps  are  specified  in  the  array
       times:  times[0] specifies the new "last access time" (atime); times[1]
       specifies the new  "last  modification  time"  (mtime).   Each  of  the
       elements  of  times  specifies  a time as the the number of seconds and
       nanoseconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01  00:00:00  +0000  (UTC).   This
       information is conveyed in a structure of the following form:

           struct timespec {
               time_t tv_sec;        /* seconds */
               long   tv_nsec;       /* nanoseconds */
           };

       Updated  file timestamps are set to the greatest value supported by the
       file system that is not greater than the specified time.

       If the tv_nsec field of one of the timespec structures has the  special
       value  UTIME_NOW,  then  the corresponding file timestamp is set to the
       current time.  If the tv_nsec field of one of the  timespec  structures
       has the special value UTIME_OMIT, then the corresponding file timestamp
       is  left  unchanged.   In  both  of  these  cases,  the  value  of  the
       corresponding tv_sec field is ignored.

       If times is NULL, then both timestamps are set to the current time.

   Permissions requirements
       To  set  both file timestamps to the current time (i.e., times is NULL,
       or both tv_nsec fields specify UTIME_NOW), either:

       1. the caller must have write access to the file;

       2. the caller’s effective user ID must match the owner of the file; or

       3. the caller must have appropriate privileges.

       To make any change other than setting both timestamps  to  the  current
       time  (i.e.,  times  is  not  NULL,  and  both  tv_nsec  fields are not
       UTIME_NOW and both tv_nsec fields are not UTIME_OMIT), either condition
       2 or 3 above must apply.

       If  both  tv_nsec  fields  are  specified  as  UTIME_OMIT, then no file
       ownership or permission checks are performed, and the  file  timestamps
       are not modified, but other error conditions may still be detected.

   utimensat() specifics
       If  pathname is relative, then by default it is interpreted relative to
       the directory referred to by the open file  descriptor,  dirfd  (rather
       than  relative to the current working directory of the calling process,
       as is done by utimes(2) for a relative pathname).  See openat(2) for an
       explanation of why this can be useful.

       If  pathname  is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then
       pathname is interpreted relative to the current  working  directory  of
       the calling process (like utimes(2)).

       If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

       The  flags  field is a bit mask that may be 0, or include the following
       constant, defined in <fcntl.h>:

       AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
              If  pathname  specifies  a  symbolic  link,  then   update   the
              timestamps of the link, rather than the file to which it refers.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, utimensat() and futimens()  return  0.   On  error,  -1  is
       returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       EACCES times is NULL, or both tv_nsec values are UTIME_NOW, and:
              * the  effective  user ID of the caller does not match the owner
                of the file, the caller does not  have  write  access  to  the
                file,  and  the caller is not privileged (Linux: does not have
                either the CAP_FOWNER or the CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE capability); or,
              * the file is marked immutable (see chattr(1)).

       EBADF  (futimens()) fd is not a valid file descriptor.

       EBADF  (utimensat())  pathname  is  a  relative  pathname, but dirfd is
              neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.

       EFAULT times pointed to an invalid address; or, dirfd was AT_FDCWD, and
              pathname is NULL or an invalid address.

       EINVAL Invalid value in flags.

       EINVAL Invalid  value in one of the tv_nsec fields (value outside range
              0 to 999,999,999,  and  not  UTIME_NOW  or  UTIME_OMIT);  or  an
              invalid value in one of the tv_sec fields.

       EINVAL pathname  is  NULL,  dirfd  is  not AT_FDCWD, and flags contains
              AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW.

       ELOOP  (utimensat())  Too  many  symbolic  links  were  encountered  in
              resolving pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              (utimensat()) pathname is too long.

       ENOENT (utimensat())  A  component  of  pathname  does  not refer to an
              existing directory or file, or pathname is an empty string.

       ENOTDIR
              (utimensat()) pathname is a  relative  pathname,  but  dirfd  is
              neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor referring to a directory;
              or, one of the prefix components of pathname is not a directory.

       EPERM  The caller attempted to change one or both timestamps to a value
              other than the current time, or to change one of the  timestamps
              to the current time while leaving the other timestamp unchanged,
              (i.e., times is not NULL, both tv_nsec fields are not UTIME_NOW,
              and both tv_nsec fields are not UTIME_OMIT) and:
              * the  caller’s  effective  user  ID does not match the owner of
                file, and the caller is not privileged (Linux: does  not  have
                the CAP_FOWNER capability); or,
              * the file is marked append-only or immutable (see chattr(1)).

       EROFS  The file is on a read-only file system.

       ESRCH  (utimensat())  Search permission is denied for one of the prefix
              components of pathname.

VERSIONS

       utimensat() was added to Linux in  kernel  2.6.22;  glibc  support  was
       added with version 2.6.

       Support for futimens() first appeared in glibc 2.6.

CONFORMING TO

       futimens() and utimensat() are specified in POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

       utimensat() obsoletes futimesat(2).

       On Linux, timestamps cannot be changed for a file marked immutable, and
       the only change permitted for files marked append-only is  to  set  the
       timestamps   to  the  current  time.   (This  is  consistent  with  the
       historical behavior of utime(2) and utimes(2) on Linux.)

       On Linux, futimens() is a library function implemented on  top  of  the
       utimensat() system call.  To support this, the Linux utimensat() system
       call implements a nonstandard feature: if pathname is  NULL,  then  the
       call  modifies  the  timestamps  of  the  file  referred to by the file
       descriptor dirfd (which may refer to any type  of  file).   Using  this
       feature, the call futimens(fd, times) is implemented as:

           utimensat(fd, NULL, times, 0);

BUGS

       Several  bugs  afflict  utimensat()  and  futimens()  on kernels before
       2.6.26.  These bugs are either nonconformances with the  POSIX.1  draft
       specification or inconsistencies with historical Linux behavior.

       * POSIX.1  specifies  that  if  one of the tv_nsec fields has the value
         UTIME_NOW or UTIME_OMIT, then the value of the  corresponding  tv_sec
         field  should  be ignored.  Instead, the value of the tv_sec field is
         required to be 0 (or the error EINVAL results).

       * Various bugs mean that for the purposes of permission  checking,  the
         case  where  both  tv_nsec  fields  are set to UTIME_NOW isn’t always
         treated the same as specifying times as NULL, and the case where  one
         tv_nsec  value is UTIME_NOW and the other is UTIME_OMIT isn’t treated
         the same as specifying times as a pointer to an array  of  structures
         containing  arbitrary  time  values.   As a result, in some cases: a)
         file timestamps can be updated  by  a  process  that  shouldn’t  have
         permission to perform updates; b) file timestamps can’t be updated by
         a process that should have permission to perform updates; and c)  the
         wrong errno value is returned in case of an error.

       * POSIX.1  says  that  a  process that has write access to the file can
         make a call with times as NULL, or with times pointing to an array of
         structures  in  which  both tv_nsec fields are UTIME_NOW, in order to
         update both timestamps to  the  current  time.   However,  futimens()
         instead  checks whether the access mode of the file descriptor allows
         writing.

SEE ALSO

       chattr(1), futimesat(2),  openat(2),  stat(2),  utimes(2),  futimes(3),
       path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON

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       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
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