]> git.saurik.com Git - apple/xnu.git/blame_incremental - bsd/man/man2/rename.2
xnu-3789.1.32.tar.gz
[apple/xnu.git] / bsd / man / man2 / rename.2
... / ...
CommitLineData
1.\" $NetBSD: rename.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:36:15 cgd Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993
4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
8.\" are met:
9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
15.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
20.\" without specific prior written permission.
21.\"
22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
32.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
33.\"
34.\" @(#)rename.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
35.\"
36.Dd September 18, 2008
37.Dt RENAME 2
38.Os BSD 4.2
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm rename ,
41.Nm renameat ,
42.Nm renamex_np ,
43.Nm renameatx_np
44.Nd change the name of a file
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Fd #include <stdio.h>
47.Ft int
48.Fo rename
49.Fa "const char *old"
50.Fa "const char *new"
51.Fc
52.Ft int
53.Fn renameat "int fromfd" "const char *from" "int tofd" "const char *to"
54.Ft int
55.Fn renamex_np "const char *from" "const char *to" "unsigned int flags"
56.Ft int
57.Fn renameatx_np "int fromfd" "const char *from" "int tofd" "const char *to" "unsigned int flags"
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59The
60.Fn rename
61system call causes the link named
62.Fa old
63to be renamed as
64.Fa new .
65If
66.Fa new
67exists, it is first removed.
68Both
69.Fa old
70and
71.Fa new
72must be of the same type
73(that is, both must be either directories or non-directories)
74and must reside on the same file system.
75.Pp
76The
77.Fn rename
78system call guarantees that an instance of
79.Fa new
80will always exist,
81even if the system should crash in the middle of the operation.
82.Pp
83If the final component of
84.Fa old
85is a symbolic link,
86the symbolic link is renamed,
87not the file or directory to which it points.
88.Pp
89The
90.Fn renameat
91system call is equivalent to
92.Fn rename
93except in the case where either
94.Fa from
95or
96.Fa to
97specifies a relative path.
98If
99.Fa from
100is a relative path, the file to be renamed is located
101relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor
102.Fa fromfd
103instead of the current working directory.
104If the
105.Fa to
106is a relative path, the same happens only relative to the directory associated
107with
108.Fa tofd .
109If the
110.Fn renameat
111is passed the special value
112.Dv AT_FDCWD
113in the
114.Fa fromfd
115or
116.Fa tofd
117parameter, the current working directory is used in the determination
118of the file for the respective path parameter.
119.Pp
120The
121.Fn renamex_np
122and
123.Fn renameatx_np
124system calls are similar to their counterparts except that they take a
125.Fa flags
126argument.
127Values for
128.Fa flags
129are constructed with below bits set:
130.Bl -tag -offset indent
131.It Dv RENAME_SWAP
132On file systems that support it (see
133.Xr getattrlist 2
134.Dv VOL_CAP_INT_RENAME_SWAP Ns ),
135it will cause the source and target to be atomically swapped. Source and target need not be of
136the same type, i.e. it is possible to swap a file with a directory.
137EINVAL is returned in case of bitwise-inclusive OR with
138.Dv RENAME_EXCL .
139.It Dv RENAME_EXCL
140On file systems that support it (see
141.Xr getattrlist 2
142.Dv VOL_CAP_INT_RENAME_EXCL Ns ),
143it will cause
144.Dv EEXIST
145to be returned if the destination already exists. EINVAL is returned in case of bitwise-inclusive OR with
146.Dv RENAME_SWAP .
147.El
148.Sh CAVEATS
149The system can deadlock if a loop is present in the file system graph.
150This loop takes the form of an entry in directory
151.Ql Pa a ,
152say
153.Ql Pa a/foo ,
154being a hard link to directory
155.Ql Pa b ,
156and an entry in
157directory
158.Ql Pa b ,
159say
160.Ql Pa b/bar ,
161being a hard link
162to directory
163.Ql Pa a .
164When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
165perform
166.Ql rename a/foo b/bar
167and
168.Ql rename b/bar a/foo ,
169respectively,
170the system may deadlock attempting to lock
171both directories for modification.
172.Pp
173Whether or not hard links to directories are supported is specific to
174the underlying filesystem implementation.
175.Pp
176It is recommended that any hard links to directories in an underlying
177filesystem should be replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator
178to avoid the possibility of deadlocks.
179.Pp
180Moving or renaming a file or directory into a directory with inheritable ACLs does not result in ACLs being set on the file or directory. Use
181.Xr acl 3
182in conjunction with
183.Fn rename
184to set ACLs on the file or directory.
185.Sh RETURN VALUES
186A 0 value is returned if the operation succeeds, otherwise
187.Fn rename
188returns -1 and the global variable
189.Va errno
190indicates the reason for the failure.
191.Sh ERRORS
192The
193.Fn rename
194system call will fail and neither of the argument files will be
195affected if:
196.Bl -tag -width Er
197.\" ===========
198.It Bq Er EACCES
199A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
200.\" ===========
201.It Bq Er EACCES
202The requested operation requires writing in a directory
203(e.g.,
204.Fa new ,
205new/.., or old/..) whose modes disallow this.
206.\" ===========
207.It Bq Er EDQUOT
208The directory in which the entry for the new name
209is being placed cannot be extended because the
210user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
211containing the directory has been exhausted.
212.\" ===========
213.It Bq Er EEXIST
214.Fa flags
215has
216.Dv RENAME_EXCL
217set but
218.Fa new
219already exists.
220.\" ===========
221.It Bq Er EFAULT
222.Em Path
223points outside the process's allocated address space.
224.\" ===========
225.It Bq Er EINVAL
226.Fa Old
227is a parent directory of
228.Fa new ,
229or an attempt is made to rename
230.Ql \&.
231or
232.Ql \&.. .
233If
234.Dv RENAME_SWAP
235is used, then
236.Dv EINVAL
237will also be returned if
238.Fa new
239is a parent directory of
240.Fa old .
241If both RENAME_SWAP and RENAME_EXCL bits are set in
242.Fa flags ,
243then
244.Dv EINVAL
245will be returned.
246.\" ===========
247.It Bq Er EINVAL
248.Fa flags
249has an invalid value.
250.\" ===========
251.It Bq Er EIO
252An I/O error occurs while making or updating a directory entry.
253.\" ===========
254.It Bq Er EISDIR
255.Fa new
256is a directory, but
257.Fa old
258is not a directory.
259.\" ===========
260.It Bq Er ELOOP
261Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating either pathname.
262This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.
263.\" ===========
264.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
265A component of a pathname exceeds
266.Dv {NAME_MAX}
267characters, or an entire path name exceeds
268.Dv {PATH_MAX}
269characters.
270.\" ===========
271.It Bq Er ENOENT
272A component of the
273.Fa old
274path does not exist,
275or a path prefix of
276.Fa new
277does not exist.
278.\" ===========
279.It Bq Er ENOENT
280.Fa flags
281has
282.Dv RENAME_SWAP
283set but
284.Fa new
285does not exist.
286.\" ===========
287.It Bq Er ENOSPC
288The directory in which the entry for the new name is being placed
289cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
290system containing the directory.
291.\" ===========
292.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
293A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
294.\" ===========
295.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
296.Fa old
297is a directory, but
298.Fa new
299is not a directory.
300.\" ===========
301.It Bq Er ENOTEMPTY
302.Fa New
303is a directory and is not empty.
304.\" ===========
305.It Bq Er ENOTSUP
306.Fa flags
307has a value that is not supported by the file system.
308.\" ===========
309.It Bq Er EPERM
310The directory containing
311.Fa old
312is marked sticky,
313and neither the containing directory nor
314.Fa old
315are owned by the effective user ID.
316.\" ===========
317.It Bq Er EPERM
318The
319.Fa new
320file exists,
321the directory containing
322.Fa new
323is marked sticky,
324and neither the containing directory nor
325.Fa new
326are owned by the effective user ID.
327.\" ===========
328.It Bq Er EROFS
329The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
330system.
331.\" ===========
332.It Bq Er EXDEV
333The link named by
334.Fa new
335and the file named by
336.Fa old
337are on different logical devices (file systems).
338Note that this error code will not be returned
339if the implementation permits cross-device links.
340.El
341.Pp
342The
343.Fn renameat
344and
345.Fn renameatx_np
346calls may also fail with:
347.Bl -tag -width Er
348.It Bq Er EBADF
349The
350.Fa from
351argument does not specify an absolute path and the
352.Fa fromfd
353argument is neither
354.Dv AT_FDCWD
355nor a valid file descriptor open for searching, or the
356.Fa to
357argument does not specify an absolute path and the
358.Fa tofd
359argument is neither
360.Dv AT_FDCWD
361nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
362.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
363The
364.Fa from
365argument is not an absolute path and
366.Fa fromfd
367is neither
368.Dv AT_FDCWD
369nor a file descriptor associated with a directory, or the
370.Fa to
371argument is not an absolute path and
372.Fa tofd
373is neither
374.Dv AT_FDCWD
375nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
376.El
377.Sh CONFORMANCE
378The restriction on renaming a directory whose permissions disallow writing
379is based on the fact that UFS directories contain a ".." entry.
380If renaming a directory would move it to another parent directory,
381this entry needs to be changed.
382.Pp
383This restriction has been generalized to disallow renaming
384of any write-disabled directory,
385even when this would not require a change to the ".." entry.
386For consistency, HFS+ directories emulate this behavior.
387.Sh SEE ALSO
388.Xr open 2 ,
389.Xr symlink 7
390.Sh STANDARDS
391The
392.Fn rename
393function conforms to
394.St -p1003.1-88 .
395The
396.Fn renameat
397system call is expected to conform to POSIX.1-2008 .