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       character  device file which has been revoked returns a count of zero (end of file), and a close() system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 using a special close method which does
       not block.

       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

       revoke(1), close(2)

HISTORY

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

BUGS

       The non-blocking close method is only correctly implemented for terminal devices.

Debian                                            Jan 25, 2016                                         REVOKE(2)