sysfs_link_change_owner(9)

💅 sysfs_link_change_owner 💅

Hey bestie, welcome to the sysfs_link_change_owner(9) page — yes, that's the kernel API manual, and yes, we're about to make symlink ownership make sense. Sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

sysfs_link_change_owner — change owner of a sysfs file. That's the whole vibe. 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int sysfs_link_change_owner (struct kobject *kobj , struct kobject *targ
, const char *name , kuid_t kuid , kgid_t kgid );

Like, five whole arguments. Not me being obsessed with a function signature 😭 but here we are.

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• kobj — the object of the kernfs_node the symlink is located in. Think of it as: where the link physically lives, bestie 🏠
• targ — the object of the kernfs_node the symlink points to. This is the destination the link is doing its little pointy thing at 👉
• name — name of the link. Literally just the name. Iconic, no notes.
• kuid — new owner's kuid. The fresh uid, slay 👑
• kgid — new owner's kgid. The fresh gid to match, periodt 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so, what does this bad boy actually do? It looks up the sysfs symlink entry name under kobj, and changes the ownership to kuid/kgid. The way it does the lookup is in the namespace of targ — important detail, don't sleep on it 💖

Returns 0 on success or an error code on failure. That's it, that's the whole story. Clean, simple, main character energy ✨

Heads up bestie: failure means you get an error code back, not 0. Always check the return value, fr fr 🔥

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./fs/sysfs/file.c, plus the whole friend group:

• sysfs_create_file_ns(9)
• sysfs_add_file_to_group(9)
• sysfs_chmod_file(9)
• sysfs_break_active_protection(9)
• sysfs_unbreak_active_protection(9)
• sysfs_remove_file_ns(9)
• sysfs_remove_file_self(9)
• sysfs_remove_file_from_group(9)
• sysfs_create_bin_file(9)
• sysfs_remove_bin_file(9)
• sysfs_file_change_owner(9)
• sysfs_change_owner(9)
• sysfs_emit(9)
• sysfs_emit_at(9)
• sysfs_bin_attr_simple_read(9)

Every single one of them, no cap. Go read them too, iykyk 📚

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That's the page, bestie! 🧚 This little gem lives at ./fs/sysfs, and it's dated October 2026 in the Kernel API Manual. Mwah, go change some owners responsibly 💜