NAME
utime — set file
access and modification times
SYNOPSIS
int utime(const char *path, const struct utimbuf *times);
DESCRIPTION
The utime () function shall set the access
and modification times of the file named by the
path
argument.
If times is a null pointer, the access and
modification times of the file shall be set to the current time. The
effective user ID of the process shall match the owner of the file, or the
process has write permission to the file or has appropriate privileges, to
use utime () in this manner.
If times is not a null pointer,
times shall be interpreted as a pointer to a
utimbuf structure and the access and modification times
shall be set to the values contained in the designated structure. Only a
process with the effective user ID equal to the user ID of the file or a
process with appropriate privileges may use utime ()
this way.
The utimbuf structure is defined in the <utime.h> header. The times in the structure utimbuf are measured in seconds since the Epoch.
Upon successful completion, the utime ()
function shall mark the last file status change timestamp for update; see
<sys/stat.h>.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno shall be set to indicate the error, and the file times shall not be affected.
ERRORS
The utime () function shall fail if:
- [EACCES]
- Search permission is denied by a component of the path prefix; or the times argument is a null pointer and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, the process does not have write permission for the file, and the process does not have appropriate privileges.
- [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 is not 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.
- [EPERM]
- The times argument is not a null pointer and the effective user ID of the calling process 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 utime () function 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}.
EXAMPLES
None.
APPLICATION USAGE
Since the utimbuf structure only contains
time_t
variables and is not accurate to fractions of a second, applications should
use the utimensat(3) function instead of the obsolescent
utime () function.
RATIONALE
The actime structure member must be present so
that an application may set it, even though an implementation may ignore it
and not change the last data access timestamp on the file. If an application
intends to leave one of the times of a file unchanged while changing the
other, it should use stat(3) or fstat(3)
to retrieve the file's
st_atim
and
st_mtim
parameters, set actime and
modtime
in the buffer, and change one of them before making the
utime () call.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The utime () function may be removed in a
future version.
SEE ALSO
fstat(3) , fstatat(3) , futimens(3)
XBD <sys/stat.h> , <utime.h>
CHANGE HISTORY
First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.
Issue 6
The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:
- The requirement to include <sys/types.h> has been removed. Although <sys/types.h> was required for conforming implementations of previous POSIX specifications, it was not required for UNIX applications.
- The [ELOOP] mandatory error condition is added.
- A second [ENAMETOOLONG] is added as an optional error condition.
The following changes were made to align with the IEEE P1003.1a draft standard:
- The [ELOOP] optional error condition is added.
The normative text is updated to avoid use of the term "must" for application requirements.
Issue 7
Austin Group Interpretation 1003.1-2001 #143 is applied.
The utime () function is marked
obsolescent.
Changes are made related to support for finegrained timestamps.