FreeBSD Manual Pages
REVOKE(2) System Calls Manual REVOKE(2) 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operations on any such descriptors fail, with the exceptions that a read() from a character device file which has been revoked returns a count of zero (end of file), and a close() system call will succeed.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 de- vice which is open, the device close function is called as if all open ref- erences 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 character special de- vice files. It is normally used to prepare a terminal device for a new lo- gin 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() opera- tion on the named file. [EPERM] The caller is neither the owner of the file nor the su- per 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. FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly October 24, 2025 REVOKE(2)
NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | BUGS
Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=revoke&sektion=2&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports.quarterly>