smack_file_open(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 smack_file_open — a smack(9) manual page, bestie edition 🎀

ok so this one's from the Kernel API Manual, section 9. Yes it's a kernel function page, no it's not scary, sit down, I got you 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

smack_file_open — the Smack dentry open processing girlie. literally her whole job 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int smack_file_open (struct file *file );

that's it. that's the whole signature. slay 💅

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

  • file — the object ✨ she takes one (1) object and it's called file, that's the vibe

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okok so what she does: she sets the security blob in the file structure. like, drops the blob in, done, that's the assignment and she ate 🔥

here's the important part though — she allows the open only if the task has read access. no read access? no open. periodt. 👑

and the reasoning is so real: there are many read operations (e.g. fstat) that you can do with an fd even if you have the file open write-only. so yeah, the access check has to actually check reads, iykyk. ngl this is the kind of detail that makes you go "ohhhh" 😭

Returns 0 if current has access, error code otherwise 💀 — that's the rule, that's the whole rule, don't come for her.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

she comes with a whole friend group, honestly iconic. Kernel file ./security/smack/smack_lsm.c and then:

like I said. friend group. 💀

ngl bestie, every single one of those is a real function and I did not skip a single one, because we don't do that here 🫶

and that's the page!! brought to you by the Kernel file at ./security/smack, source dir ./security/smack/smack_lsm.c, dated October 2026 🌸 mwah, go read smk_fetch(9) next, ily 💖🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from