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ACCESS(2)                   BSD System Calls Manual                  ACCESS(2)

NAME
     access -- check access permissions of a file or pathname

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     access(const char *path, int amode);

DESCRIPTION
     The access() function checks the accessibility of the file named by path
     for the access permissions indicated by amode.  The value of amode is the
     bitwise inclusive OR of the access permissions to be checked (R_OK for
     read permission, W_OK for write permission and X_OK for execute/search
     permission) or the existence test, F_OK.  All components of the pathname
     path are checked for access permissions (including F_OK).

     The real user ID is used in place of the effective user ID and the real
     group access list (including the real group ID) are used in place of the
     effective ID for verifying permission.

     Even if a process has appropriate privileges and indicates success for
     X_OK, the file may not actually have execute permission bits set.  Like-wise Likewise
     wise for R_OK and W_OK.

RETURN VALUES
     If path cannot be found or if any of the desired access modes would not
     be granted, then a -1 value is returned and the global integer variable
     errno is set to indicate the error.  Otherwise, a 0 value is returned.

ERRORS
     Access to the file is denied if:

     [EACCES]           Permission bits of the file mode do not permit the
                        requested access, or search permission is denied on a
                        component of the path prefix.

                        The owner of a file has permission checked with
                        respect to the ``owner'' read, write, and execute mode
                        bits, members of the file's group other than the owner
                        have permission checked with respect to the ``group''
                        mode bits, and all others have permissions checked
                        with respect to the ``other'' mode bits.

     [EFAULT]           Path points outside the process's allocated address
                        space.

     [EINVAL]           An invalid value was specified for amode.

     [EIO]              An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
                        the file system.

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} charac-ters, characters,
                        ters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} char-acters. characters.
                        acters.

     [ENOENT]           The named file does not exist.

     [ENOTDIR]          A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [EROFS]            Write access is requested for a file on a read-only
                        file system.

     [ETXTBSY]          Write access is requested for a pure procedure (shared
                        text) file that is presently being executed.

SEE ALSO
     chmod(2), stat(2)

STANDARDS
     The access() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').

CAVEAT
     Access() is a potential security hole and should never be used.

4th Berkeley Distribution        April 1, 1994       4th Berkeley Distribution