This manual page describes POSIX Access Control Lists, which are used to
     define more fine-grained discretionary access rights for files and direc­
     tories.


ACL TYPES

     Every object can be thought of as having associated with it an ACL that
     governs the discretionary access to that object; this ACL is referred to
     as an access ACL. In addition, a directory may have an associated ACL
     that governs the initial access ACL for objects created within that di­
     rectory; this ACL is referred to as a default ACL.


ACL ENTRIES

     An ACL consists of a set of ACL entries. An ACL entry specifies the ac­
     cess permissions on the associated object for an individual user or a
     group of users as a combination of read, write and search/execute permis­
     sions.

     An ACL entry contains an entry tag type, an optional entry tag qualifier,
     and a set of permissions.  We use the term qualifier to denote the entry
     tag qualifier of an ACL entry.

     The qualifier denotes the identifier of a user or a group, for entries
     with tag types of ACL_USER or ACL_GROUP, respectively. Entries with tag
     types other than ACL_USER or ACL_GROUP have no defined qualifiers.

     The following entry tag types are defined:

           ACL_USER_OBJ    The ACL_USER_OBJ entry denotes access rights for
                           the file owner.

           ACL_USER        ACL_USER entries denote access rights for users
                           identified by the entry's qualifier.

           ACL_GROUP_OBJ   The ACL_GROUP_OBJ entry denotes access rights for
                           the file group.

           ACL_GROUP       ACL_USER entries denote access rights for groups
                           identified by the entry's qualifier.

           ACL_MASK        The ACL_MASK entry denotes the maximum access
                           rights that can be granted by entries of type
                           ACL_USER, ACL_GROUP_OBJ, or ACL_GROUP.

           ACL_OTHER       The ACL_OTHER entry denotes access rights for pro­
                           cesses that do not match any other entry in the
                           ACL.

     When an access check is performed, the ACL_USER_OBJ and ACL_USER entries
     are tested against the effective user ID. The effective group ID, as well
     as all supplementary group IDs are tested against the ACL_GROUP_OBJ and
     ACL_GROUP entries.


VALID ACLs

     A valid ACL contains exactly one entry with each of the ACL_USER_OBJ,
     ACL_GROUP_OBJ, and ACL_OTHER tag types. Entries with ACL_USER and
     ACL_GROUP tag types may appear zero or more times in an ACL. An ACL that
     fault ACL. The acl_set_file() function also accepts an ACL with zero ACL
     entries as a valid default ACL for directories, denoting that the direc­
     tory shall not be associated with a default ACL. This is equivalent to
     using the acl_delete_def_file() function.


CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ACL ENTRIES AND FILE PERMISSION BITS

     The permissions defined by ACLs are a superset of the permissions speci­
     fied by the file permission bits. The permissions defined for the file
     owner correspond to the permissions of the ACL_USER_OBJ entry.  The per­
     missions defined for the file group correspond to the permissions of the
     ACL_GROUP_OBJ entry, if the ACL has no ACL_MASK entry. If the ACL has an
     ACL_MASK entry, then the permissions defined for the file group corre­
     spond to the permissions of the ACL_MASK entry. The permissions defined
     for the other class correspond to the permissions of the ACL_OTHER_OBJ
     entry.

     Modification of the file permission bits results in the modification of
     the permissions in the associated ACL entries. Modification of the per­
     missions in the ACL entries results in the modification of the file per­
     mission bits.


OBJECT CREATION AND DEFAULT ACLs

     The access ACL of a file object is initialized when the object is created
     with any of the creat(), mkdir(), mknod(), mkfifo(), or open() functions.
     If a default ACL is associated with a directory, the mode parameter to
     the functions creating file objects and the default ACL of the directory
     are used to determine the ACL of the new object:

     1.   The new object inherits the default ACL of the containing directory
          as its access ACL.

     2.   The access ACL entries corresponding to the file permission bits are
          modified so that they contain no permissions that are not contained
          in the permissions specified by the mode parameter.

     If no default ACL is associated with a directory, the mode parameter to
     the functions creating file objects and the file creation mask (see
     umask(2))  are used to determine the ACL of the new object:

     1.   The new object is assigned an access ACL containing entries of tag
          types ACL_USER_OBJ, ACL_GROUP_OBJ, and ACL_MASK. The permissions of
          these entries are set to the permissions specified by the file cre­
          ation mask.

     2.   The access ACL entries corresponding to the file permission bits are
          modified so that they contain no permissions that are not contained
          in the permissions specified by the mode parameter.


ACCESS CHECK ALGORITHM

     A process may request read, write, or execute/search access to a file ob­
     ject protected by an ACL. The access check algorithm determines whether
     access to the object will be granted.

     1.   If the effective user ID of the process matches the user ID of the
          file object owner, then


              else access is denied.

     3.   else if the effective group ID or any of the supplementary group IDs
          of the process match the qualifier of the entry of type
          ACL_GROUP_OBJ, or the qualifier of any entry of type ACL_GROUP, then

              if the ACL_MASK entry and any of the matching ACL_GROUP_OBJ or
              ACL_GROUP entries contain the requested permissions, access is
              granted,

              else access is denied.

     4.   else if the ACL_OTHER entry contains the requested permissions, ac­
          cess is granted.

     5.   else access is denied.


ACL TEXT FORMS

     A long and a short text form for representing ACLs is defined. In both
     forms, ACL entries are represented as three colon separated fields: an
     ACL entry tag type, an ACL entry qualifier, and the discretionary access
     permissions. The first field contains one of the following entry tag type
     keywords:

           user    A user ACL entry specifies the access granted to either the
                   file owner (entry tag type ACL_USER_OBJ) or a specified us­
                   er (entry tag type ACL_USER).

           group   A group ACL entry specifies the access granted to either
                   the file group (entry tag type ACL_GROUP_OBJ) or a speci­
                   fied group (entry tag type ACL_GROUP).

           mask    A mask ACL entry specifies the maximum access which can be
                   granted by any ACL entry except the user entry for the file
                   owner and the other entry (entry tag type ACL_MASK).

           other   An other ACL entry specifies the access granted to any pro­
                   cess that does not match any user or group ACL entries (en­
                   try tag type ACL_OTHER).

     The second field contains the user or group identifier of the user or
     group associated with the ACL entry for entries of entry tag type ACL_US­
     ER or ACL_GROUP, and is empty for all other entries. A user identifier
     can be a user name or a user ID number in decimal form. A group identifi­
     er can be a group name or a group ID number in decimal form.

     The third field contains the discretionary access permissions. The read,
     write and search/execute permissions are represented by the r, w, and x
     characters, in this order. Each of these characters is replaced by the -
     character to denote that a permission is absent in the ACL entry.  When
     converting from the text form to the internal representation, permissions
     that are absent need not be specified.

     White space is permitted at the beginning and end of each ACL entry, and
     immediately before and after a field separator (the colon character).
           user::rw-
           user:lisa:rw-         #effective:r--
           group::r--
           group:toolies:rw-     #effective:r--
           mask::r--
           other::r--

   SHORT TEXT FORM
     The short text form is a sequence of ACL entries separated by commas, and
     is used for input. Comments are not supported. Entry tag type keywords
     may either appear in their full unabbreviated form, or in their single
     letter abbreviated form. The abbreviation for user is u, the abbreviation
     for group is g, the abbreviation for mask is m, and the abbreviation for
     other is o. The permissions may contain at most one each of the following
     characters in any order: r, w, x. These are examples of the short text
     form:

           u::rw-,u:lisa:rw-,g::r--,g:toolies:rw-,m::r--,o::r--
           g:toolies:rw,u:lisa:rw,u::wr,g::r,o::r,m::r


RATIONALE

     IEEE 1003.1e draft 17 defines Access Control Lists that include entries
     of tag type ACL_MASK, and defines a mapping between file permission bits
     that is not constant. The standard working group defined this relatively
     complex interface in order to ensure that applications that are compliant
     with IEEE 1003.1 ("POSIX.1") will still function as expected on systems
     with ACLs. The IEEE 1003.1e draft 17 contains the rationale for choosing
     this interface in section B.23.


CHANGES TO THE FILE UTILITIES

     On a system that supports ACLs, the file utilities ls(1),  cp(1) and
     mv(1) change their behavior in the following way:

     ·   For files that have a default ACL or an access ACL that contains more
         than the three required ACL entries, the ls(1) utility in the long
         form produced by ls -l displays a plus sign (+) after the permission
         string.

     ·   If the -p flag is specified, the cp(1) utility also preserves ACLs.
         If this is not possible, a warning is produced.

     ·     The mv(1) utility always preserves ACLs. If this is not possible, a
         warning is produced.

     The effect of the chmod(1) utility, and of the chmod(2) system call, on
     the access ACL is described in CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ACL ENTRIES AND
     FILE PERMISSION BITS.


STANDARDS

     The IEEE 1003.1e draft 17 ("POSIX.1e") document describes several securi­
     ty extensions to the IEEE 1003.1 standard. While the work on 1003.1e has
     been abandoned, many UNIX style systems implement parts of POSIX.1e draft
     17, or of earlier drafts.

     Linux Access Control Lists implement the full set of functions and utili­
     ties defined for Access Control Lists in POSIX.1e, and several exten­

   POSIX 1003.1e DRAFT 17
     http://www.guug.de/~winni/posix.1e/download.html

   POSIX 1003.1e FUNCTIONS BY CATEGORY

     ACL storage management
          acl_dup(3),  acl_free(3),  acl_init(3)

     ACL entry manipulation
          acl_copy_entry(3),  acl_create_entry(3),  acl_delete_entry(3),
          acl_get_entry(3),  acl_valid(3)

          acl_add_perm(3),  acl_calc_mask(3),  acl_clear_perms(3),
          acl_delete_perm(3),  acl_get_permset(3),  acl_set_permset(3)

          acl_get_qualifier(3),  acl_get_tag_type(3),  acl_set_qualifier(3),
          acl_set_tag_type(3)

     ACL manipulation on an object
          acl_delete_def_file(3),  acl_get_fd(3),  acl_get_file(3),
          acl_set_fd(3),  acl_set_file(3)

     ACL format translation
          acl_copy_entry(3),  acl_copy_ext(3),  acl_from_text(3),
          acl_to_text(3),  acl_size(3)

   POSIX 1003.1e FUNCTIONS BY AVAILABILITY
     The first group of functions is supported on most systems with POSIX-like
     access control lists, while the second group is supported on fewer sys­
     tems.  For applications that will be ported the second group is best
     avoided.

     acl_delete_def_file(3),  acl_dup(3),  acl_free(3),  acl_from_text(3),
     acl_get_fd(3),  acl_get_file(3),  acl_init(3),  acl_set_fd(3),
     acl_set_file(3),  acl_to_text(3),  acl_valid(3)

     acl_add_perm(3),  acl_calc_mask(3),  acl_clear_perms(3),
     acl_copy_entry(3),  acl_copy_ext(3),  acl_copy_int(3),
     acl_create_entry(3),  acl_delete_entry(3),  acl_delete_perm(3),
     acl_get_entry(3),  acl_get_permset(3),  acl_get_qualifier(3),
     acl_get_tag_type(3),  acl_set_permset(3),  acl_set_qualifier(3),
     acl_set_tag_type(3),  acl_size(3)

   LINUX EXTENSIONS
     These non-portable extensions are available on Linux systems.

     acl_check(3),  acl_cmp(3),  acl_entries(3),  acl_equiv_mode(3),
     acl_error(3),  acl_extended_fd(3),  acl_extended_file(3),
     acl_from_mode(3),  acl_get_perm(3),  acl_to_any_text(3)

 Linux ACL                      March 23, 2002                               5

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