UTIME(3P)

🌸 UTIME(3P) — okay bestie, it's the POSIX Programmer's Manual page for utime 🌸

💖 Heads up before we even start: this page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so go check the matching Linux manual page for the Linux tea), or honestly the interface may not even be implemented on Linux at all. Not me warning you first thing. 🙈

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✨ PROLOG ✨

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.

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👑 NAME 👑

utime — set file access and modification times. That's it, that's the whole vibe.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <utime.h>

int utime(const char *path, const struct utimbuf *times);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so the utime() function shall set the access and modification times of the file named by the path argument. Simple enough, right? Here's the plot twist though, it depends on what you pass as times:

• If times is a null pointer, the access and modification times of the file shall be set to the current time. But to use utime() this way, the effective user ID of the process shall match the owner of the file, or the process has write permission to the file, or it has appropriate privileges. One of those three, bestie, or it's not happening. 💅
• If times is not a null pointer, then times shall be interpreted as a pointer to a utimbuf structure, and the access and modification times shall be set to the values contained in the designated structure. But only a process with an effective user ID equal to the user ID of the file, or a process with appropriate privileges, may use utime() this way. Stricter rules for the fancy mode, periodt.

The utimbuf structure is defined in the <utime.h> header. The times in the structure utimbuf are measured in seconds since the Epoch.

And upon successful completion, the utime() function shall mark the last file status change timestamp for update — see <sys/stat.h> for that whole situation.

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

• Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Slay. ✨
• Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno shall be set to indicate the error, and the file times shall not be affected. So like, no half-done chaos, it's all or nothing.

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💀 ERRORS 💀

The utime() function shall fail if:

• EACCES — Search permission is denied by a component of the path prefix; or the times 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.
• ELOOP — A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument. Symbolic link ouroboros, we hate to see it. 🌀
• ENAMETOOLONG — The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
• ENOENT — A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string. Nothing there, bestie. 🫥
• ENOTDIR — A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory, or the path 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.
• EPERM — The times 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.
• EROFS — The file system containing the file is read-only. Can't touch this, literally. 🚫

The utime() function may fail if:

• ELOOP — More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path 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}.

🙈 Just a lil note: the following sections are informative. So they're the commentary track, not the rules, iykyk.

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

None. The examples section said "not today." 😭

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💜 APPLICATION USAGE 💜

Since the utimbuf structure only contains time_t variables and is not accurate to fractions of a second, applications should use the utimensat() function instead of the obsolescent utime() function. Yeah, utime() is giving ✨legacy✨. Use utimensat() if you want that sub-second precision.

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🧚 RATIONALE 🧚

The actime 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. Like, the member has to exist even if nobody's listening. 🫶

If an application intends to leave one of the times of a file unchanged while changing the other, it should use stat() or fstat() to retrieve the file's st_atim and st_mtim parameters, set actime and modtime in the buffer, and change one of them before making the utime() call. That's the move. 💅

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⭐ FUTURE DIRECTIONS ⭐

The utime() function may be removed in a future version. So like... cherish it while it lasts? 😭

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• fstat()
• fstatat()
• futimens()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <sys_stat.h>, <utime.h>

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

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 at http://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, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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💖 and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 — this one's from IEEE/The Open Group, 2017, and it's the UTIME(3P) page. Go set some timestamps responsibly. 🎀✨🦋