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IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)utimes.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" .Dd September 14, 2013 .Dt UTIMES 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm utimes , .Nm lutimes , .Nm futimes , .Nm utimens , .Nm lutimens , .Nm futimens , .Nm utimensat .Nd set file access and modification times .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/time.h .Ft int .Fn utimes "const char *path" "const struct timeval times[2]" .Ft int .Fn lutimes "const char *path" "const struct timeval times[2]" .Ft int .Fn futimes "int fd" "const struct timeval times[2]" .In sys/stat.h .Ft int .Fn utimens "const char *path" "const struct timespec times[2]" .Ft int .Fn lutimens "const char *path" "const struct timespec times[2]" .Ft int .Fn futimens "int fd" "const struct timespec times[2]" .In sys/stat.h .In fcntl.h .Ft int .Fn utimensat "int fd" "const char *path" "const struct timespec times[2]" \ "int flag" .Sh DESCRIPTION The access and modification times of the file named by .Fa path or referenced by .Fa fd are changed as specified by the argument .Fa times . .Pp If .Fa times is .Dv NULL , the access and modification times are set to the current time. The caller must be the owner of the file, have permission to write the file, or be the super-user. .Pp If .Fa times is .Pf non- Dv NULL , it is assumed to point to an array of two timeval structures. The access time is set to the value of the first element, and the modification time is set to the value of the second element. For file systems that support file birth (creation) times (such as UFS2), the birth time will be set to the value of the second element if the second element is older than the currently set birth time. To set both a birth time and a modification time, two calls are required; the first to set the birth time and the second to set the (presumably newer) modification time. Ideally a new system call will be added that allows the setting of all three times at once. The caller must be the owner of the file or be the super-user. .Pp In either case, the inode-change-time of the file is set to the current time. .Pp .Fn lutimes is like .Fn utimes except in the case where the named file is a symbolic link, in which case .Fn lutimes changes the access and modification times of the link, while .Fn utimes changes the times of the file the link references. .Pp .Fn utimens , .Fn lutimens , and .Fn futimens are like .Fn utimes , .Fn lutimes , and .Fn futimes respectively except that time is specified with nanosecond instead of microsecond precision. .Pp .Fn utimensat works the same way as .Fn utimens except if .Fa path is relative. In that case, it is looked up from a directory whose file descriptor was passed as .Fa fd . Search permission is required on this directory. .\" (These alternatives await a decision about the semantics of O_SEARCH) .\" Search permission is required on this directory .\" except if .\" .Fa fd .\" was opened with the .\" .Dv O_SEARCH .\" flag. .\" - or - .\" This file descriptor must have been opened with the .\" .Dv O_SEARCH .\" flag. .Fa fd can be set to .Dv AT_FDCWD in order to specify the current directory. .Pp When it operates on a symbolic link, .Fn utimensat will change the target's time unless .Dv AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW is set in .Fa flag . In that later case, the symbolic link's dates are changed. .Pp The nanosecond fields for .Fn utimens , .Fn lutimens , .Fn futimens , and .Fn utimensat can be set to the special value .Dv UTIME_NOW to set the current time, or to .Dv UTIME_OMIT to let the time unchanged (this allows changing access time but not modification time, and vice-versa). .Sh RETURN VALUES .Rv -std utimes lutimes futimes utimens lutimens futimens utimensat .Sh ERRORS .Fn utimes , .Fn lutimes , .Fn utimens , .Fn lutimens , and .Fn utimensat will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix; or the .Fa times argument is .Dv NULL and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, and is not the super-user, and write access is denied. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa path or .Fa times points outside the process's allocated address space. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading or writing the affected inode. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded .Brq Dv NAME_MAX characters, or an entire path name exceeded .Brq Dv PATH_MAX characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT The named file does not exist. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er EPERM The .Fa times argument is not .Dv NULL and the calling process's effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and is not the super-user. .It Bq Er EROFS The file system containing the file is mounted read-only. .El .Pp In addition, .Fn utimensat will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF .Fa path does not specify an absolute path and .Fa fd is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for reading or searching. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR .Fa path is not an absolute path and .Fa fd is a file descriptor associated with a non-directory file. .El .Pp .Fn futimes and .Fn futimens will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EACCES The .Fa times argument is .Dv NULL and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, and is not the super-user, and write access is denied. .It Bq Er EBADF .Fa fd does not refer to a valid descriptor. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa times points outside the process's allocated address space. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading or writing the affected inode. .It Bq Er EPERM The .Fa times argument is not .Dv NULL and the calling process's effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and is not the super-user. .It Bq Er EROFS The file system containing the file is mounted read-only. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr stat 2 , .Xr utime 3 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn utimes function conforms to .St -p1003.1-2001 . It was however marked as legacy in the .St -p1003.1-2004 revision. .Fn futimens and .Fn utimensat functions conform to .St -p1003.1-2008 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn utimes function call appeared in .Bx 4.2 . The .Fn futimes function call appeared in .Nx 1.2 . The .Fn lutimes function call appeared in .Nx 1.3 . Birthtime setting support was added in .Nx 5.0 . .Fn futimens and .Fn utimensat functions calls appeared in .Nx 6.0 .