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UTIME(3P) POSIX Programmer's ManualUTIME(3P)This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
utime — set file access and modification times
#include <utime.h> int utime(const char *path, const struct utimbuf *times);
Theutime() function shall set the access and modification times of the file named by thepath argument. Iftimes is a null pointer, the access and modification times of the file shall be set to the current time. The effective user ID of the process shall match the owner of the file, or the process has write permission to the file or has appropriate privileges, to useutime() in this manner. Iftimes is not a null pointer,times shall be interpreted as a pointer to autimbufstructure and the access and modification times shall be set to the values contained in the designated structure. Only a process with the effective user ID equal to the user ID of the file or a process with appropriate privileges may useutime() this way. Theutimbufstructure is defined in the<utime.h> header. The times in the structureutimbufare measured in seconds since the Epoch. Upon successful completion, theutime() function shall mark the last file status change timestamp for update; see<sys/stat.h>.
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned anderrno shall be set to indicate the error, and the file times shall not be affected.
Theutime() function shall fail if:EACCESSearch permission is denied by a component of the path prefix; or thetimes argument is a null pointer and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, the process does not have write permission for the file, and the process does not have appropriate privileges.ELOOPA loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of thepath argument.ENAMETOOLONG The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.ENOENTA component ofpath does not name an existing file orpath is an empty string.ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory, or thepath argument contains at least one non-<slash> character and ends with one or more trailing <slash> characters and the last pathname component names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.EPERMThetimes argument is not a null pointer and the effective user ID of the calling process does not match the owner of the file and the calling process does not have appropriate privileges.EROFSThe file system containing the file is read-only. Theutime() function may fail if:ELOOPMore than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of thepath argument.ENAMETOOLONG The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.The following sections are informative.None.
Since theutimbufstructure only containstime_tvariables and is not accurate to fractions of a second, applications should use theutimensat() function instead of the obsolescentutime() function.
Theactime structure member must be present so that an application may set it, even though an implementation may ignore it and not change the last data access timestamp on the file. If an application intends to leave one of the times of a file unchanged while changing the other, it should usestat() orfstat() to retrieve the file'sst_atim andst_mtim parameters, setactime andmodtime in the buffer, and change one of them before making theutime() call.
Theutime() function may be removed in a future version.
fstat(3p),fstatat(3p),futimens(3p) The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017,sys_stat.h(0p),utime.h(0p)
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online athttp://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html . Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, seehttps://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .IEEE/The Open Group 2017UTIME(3P)Pages that refer to this page:time.h(0p), utime.h(0p), pax(1p), touch(1p), asctime(3p), clock(3p), ctime(3p), difftime(3p), fstatvfs(3p), futimens(3p), gmtime(3p), localtime(3p), mktime(3p), strftime(3p), time(3p)
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