REVOKE(2)

💅 REVOKE(2) — revoke file access

okay bestie, welcome to revoke(2), from the System Calls Manual (section 2, we're in syscall territory now 👑). This is the page where you learn how to yank somebody's access to a file out from under them, and honestly? it's giving main character energy. Let's get into it. 🦋

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🌈 LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc). yeah. the classics. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int
revoke(const char *path);

🎀 DESCRIPTION

so the revoke() system call invalidates all current open file descriptors in the system for the file named by path. all of them. everywhere. not just yours. 💀

After that, any subsequent operations on any of those descriptors just… fail. except — and this is the cute part — a read() from a character device file that's been revoked returns a count of zero (that's end-of-file, bestie 🌸), and a close() system call will still succeed. Also: if the file is a special file for a device which is open, the device close function gets called as if all open references to the file had been closed, using a special close method which does not block. noted. 🫶

Now the important bits, no cap:

• Access to a file may be revoked only by its owner or the super user. everybody else, get out of the group chat. 🙈
• revoke() is currently supported only for character special device files.
• It's normally used to prepare a terminal device for a new login session, preventing any access by a previous user of the terminal. like wiping the whiteboard before the next person walks in. iconic. ✨

⭐ RETURN VALUES

The revoke() function returns the value 0 if successful. otherwise it returns -1, and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. standard king behavior. 👑

🔥 ERRORS

Access to the named file is revoked unless one of the following happens — in which case, nope, no revoking today:

• [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. (girl, shorten it 😭)
• [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() operation on the named file.
• [EPERM] — The caller is neither the owner of the file nor the super user. 🚫

🦋 SEE ALSO

revoke(1), close(2) — go read those too, iykyk 💜

🌸 HISTORY

The revoke() system call first appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno. vintage. we love a legend with lore. 🎀

💀 BUGS

The non-blocking close method is only correctly implemented for terminal devices. so like… mind the gap, bestie. ⚠️

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fr fr, this is a destructive one — you're torching every open fd for that file system-wide. read the ERRORS list twice before you ship. 🔥

that's the whole page, mwah 💋 — this Debian build is dated October 24, 2025, so go forth and revoke responsibly, queen 👑✨