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ACL(3)			     Library Functions Manual			  ACL(3)

NAME
     acl -- introduction to the POSIX.1e ACL security API

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/acl.h>

DESCRIPTION
     FreeBSD  permits  file  systems to export Access Control Lists via the VFS,
     and provides a library for userland access to  and  manipulation  of  these
     ACLs.   Not all file systems provide support for ACLs, and some may require
     that ACL support be explicitly enabled by the administrator.   The  library
     calls  include routines to allocate, duplicate, retrieve, set, and validate
     ACLs associated with file objects.  As well as the POSIX.1e routines, there
     are a number of non-portable extensions defined that allow for  alternative
     ACL  semantics  than  the	POSIX.1e semantics, such as AFS, NTFS, Coda, and
     NWFS semantics.  Where routines are non-standard, they  are  suffixed  with
     _np to indicate that they are not portable.

     POSIX.1e  describes  a  set of ACL manipulation routines to manage the con-
     tents of ACLs, as well as their relationships with  files;  almost  all  of
     these support routines are implemented in FreeBSD.

     Available functions, sorted by behavior, include:

     acl_add_perm()
	     This  function  is described in acl_add_perm(3), and may be used to
	     add permissions to a permission set.

     acl_calc_mask()
	     This function is described in acl_calc_mask(3), and may be used  to
	     calculate	and set the permissions associated with the ACL_MASK en-
	     try.

     acl_clear_perms()
	     This function is described in acl_clear_perms(3), and may	be  used
	     to clear all permissions from a permission set.

     acl_copy_entry()
	     This function is described in acl_copy_entry(3), and may be used to
	     copy the contents of an ACL entry.

     acl_create_entry()
	     This  function is described in acl_create_entry(3), and may be used
	     to create an empty entry in an ACL.

     acl_delete_def_file(),    acl_delete_def_link_np(),     acl_delete_fd_np(),
	     acl_delete_file_np(), acl_delete_link_np()
	     These  functions are described in acl_delete(3), and may be used to
	     delete ACLs from file system objects.

     acl_delete_entry()
	     This function is described in acl_delete_entry(3), and may be  used
	     to delete an entry from an ACL.

     acl_delete_perm()
	     This  function  is described in acl_delete_perm(3), and may be used
	     to delete permissions from a permset.

     acl_dup()
	     This function is described in acl_dup(3), and may be used to dupli-
	     cate an ACL structure.

     acl_free()
	     This function is described in acl_free(3), and may be used to  free
	     userland working ACL storage.

     acl_from_text()
	     This  function is described in acl_from_text(3), and may be used to
	     convert a text-form ACL into working ACL  state,  if  the	ACL  has
	     POSIX.1e semantics.

     acl_get_entry()
	     This  function is described in acl_get_entry(3), and may be used to
	     retrieve a designated ACL entry from an ACL.

     acl_get_fd(), acl_get_fd_np(), acl_get_file(), acl_get_link_np()
	     These functions are described in acl_get(3), and may be used to re-
	     trieve ACLs from file system objects.

     acl_get_permset()
	     This function is described in acl_get_permset(3), and may	be  used
	     to retrieve a permset from an ACL entry.

     acl_get_qualifier()
	     This function is described in acl_get_qualifier(3), and may be used
	     to retrieve the qualifier from an ACL entry.

     acl_get_tag_type()
	     This  function is described in acl_get_tag_type(3), and may be used
	     to retrieve the tag type from an ACL entry.

     acl_init()
	     This function is described in acl_init(3), and may be used to allo-
	     cate a fresh (empty) ACL structure.

     acl_set_fd(), acl_set_fd_np(), acl_set_file(), acl_set_link_np()
	     These functions are described in acl_set(3), and may be used to as-
	     sign an ACL to a file system object.

     acl_set_permset()
	     This function is described in acl_set_permset(3), and may	be  used
	     to set the permissions of an ACL entry from a permset.

     acl_set_qualifier()
	     This function is described in acl_set_qualifier(3), and may be used
	     to set the qualifier of an ACL.

     acl_set_tag_type()
	     This  function is described in acl_set_tag_type(3), and may be used
	     to set the tag type of an ACL.

     acl_to_text()
	     This function is described in acl_to_text(3), and may  be	used  to
	     generate a text-form of a POSIX.1e semantics ACL.

     acl_valid(), acl_valid_fd_np(), acl_valid_file_np(), acl_valid_link_np()
	     These  functions  are described in acl_valid(3), and may be used to
	     validate an ACL as correct POSIX.1e-semantics,  or  as  appropriate
	     for a particular file system object regardless of semantics.

     Documentation  of the internal kernel interfaces backing these calls may be
     found in acl(9).  The syscalls between the internal interfaces and the pub-
     lic library routines may change over time, and as such are not  documented.
     They  are	not intended to be called directly without going through the li-
     brary.

SEE ALSO
     getfacl(1),      setfacl(1),	acl_add_perm(3),       acl_calc_mask(3),
     acl_clear_perms(3),  acl_copy_entry(3), acl_create_entry(3), acl_delete_en-
     try(3),  acl_delete_perm(3),  acl_dup(3),	acl_free(3),   acl_from_text(3),
     acl_get(3),  acl_get_permset(3), acl_get_qualifier(3), acl_get_tag_type(3),
     acl_init(3),    acl_set(3),    acl_set_permset(3),    acl_set_qualifier(3),
     acl_set_tag_type(3), acl_to_text(3), acl_valid(3), posix1e(3), acl(9)

STANDARDS
     POSIX.1e  assigns	security  labels  to all objects, extending the security
     functionality described in POSIX.1.  These additional labels provide  fine-
     grained discretionary access control, fine-grained capabilities, and labels
     necessary	for mandatory access control.  POSIX.2c describes a set of user-
     land utilities for manipulating these labels.

     POSIX.1e is described in IEEE POSIX.1e draft 17.  Discussion of  the  draft
     continues	on  the cross-platform POSIX.1e implementation mailing list.  To
     join this list, see the FreeBSD POSIX.1e implementation page for  more  in-
     formation.

HISTORY
     POSIX.1e  support	was introduced in FreeBSD 4.0; FreeBSD 5.0 was the first
     version to include a complete ACL implementation based on extended  attrib-
     utes for the UFS and UFS2 file systems.

     The getfacl(1) and setfacl(1) utilities describe the user tools that permit
     direct manipulation of complete file ACLs.

AUTHORS
     Robert N M Watson

FreeBSD 7.2			December 18, 2002			  ACL(3)

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