CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 1

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX

Environment

Files and Directories

Department of Computer Science
Stevens Institute of Technology
Jan Schaumann
jschauma@stevens.edu
https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/631/

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 2

Code Reading
HW#2

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 3

stat(2) family of functions

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
int stat(const char *path, struct stat *sb);
int lstat(const char *path, struct stat *sb);
int fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error

All these functions return extended attributes about the referenced file (in
the case of symbolic links, lstat(2) returns attributes of the link, others
return stats of the referenced file).

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 4

stat(2) family of functions

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
int stat(const char *path, struct stat *sb);
int lstat(const char *path, struct stat *sb);
int fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error

All these functions return extended attributes about the referenced file (in
the case of symbolic links, lstat(2) returns attributes of the link, others
return stats of the referenced file).
struct stat {
dev_t
ino_t
mode_t
dev_t
nlink_t
uid_t
gid_t
off_t
time_t
time_t
time_t
long
long
};

st_dev;
st_ino;
st_mode;
st_rdev;
st_nlink;
st_uid;
st_gid;
st_size;
st_atime;
st_mtime;
st_ctime;
st_blocks;
st_blksize;

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*
/*

device number (filesystem) */

i-node number (serial number) */
file type & mode (permissions) */
device number for special files */
number of links */
user ID of owner */
group ID of owner */
size in bytes, for regular files */
time of last access */
time of last modification */
time of last file status change */
number of 512-byte* blocks allocated */
best I/O block size */

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 5

struct stat: st mode

The st mode field of the struct stat encodes the type of file:
regular most common, interpretation of data is up to application
directory contains names of other files and pointer to information
on those files. Any process can read, only kernel can write.
character special used for certain types of devices
block special used for disk devices (typically). All devices are
either character or block special.
FIFO used for interprocess communication (sometimes called
named pipe)
socket used for network communication and non-network
communication (same host).
symbolic link Points to another file.
Find out more in <sys/stat.h>.

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 6

struct stat: st mode

Lets improve simple-ls.c.
$ ssh linux-lab
$ cc -Wall simple-ls.c
$ ./a.out ~jschauma/apue/03/tmp
.
..
log
ev
[...]
$ cc -Wall simple-ls-stat.c
$ ./a.out ~jschauma/apue/03/tmp
. (directory - directory)
.. (directory - directory)
log (socket - socket)
dev (directory - symbolic link)
[...]
Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 7

File types for standard file descriptors

You can glean how the OS implements e.g. pipes by inspecting certain
files in a procfs:
$ ls -l /dev/fd/1
$ ls -l /dev/fd/1 | cat

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 8

struct stat: st mode, st uid and st gid

Every process has six or more IDs associated with it:
real user ID
who we really are
real group ID
effective user ID
used for file access permission checks
effective group ID
supplementary group IDs
saved set-user-ID
saved by exec functions
saved set-group-ID
Whenever a file is setuid, set the effective user ID to st uid. Whenever a
file is setgid, set the effective group ID to st gid. st uid and st gid
always specify the owner and group owner of a file, regardless of
whether it is setuid/setgid.

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 9

setuid(2)/seteuid(2)
#include <unistd.h>
int seteuid(uid t uid);
int setuid(uid t euid);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error
uid t geteuid(void);
uid t getuid(void);
Returns: uid t; no error

See also: getresuid(2) (if GNU SOURCE)

setuid programs should only use elevated privileges when needed. Note:
after using setuid(2), you cannot regain elevated privileges. This is by
design!
setuid.c

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 10

access(2)
#include <unistd.h>
int access(const char *path, int mode);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error

Tests file accessibility on the basis of the real uid and gid. Allows
setuid/setgid programs to see if the real user could access the file
without it having to drop permissions to do so.
The mode paramenter can be a bitwise OR of:
R OK test for read permission
W OK test for write permission
X OK test for execute permission
F OK test for existence of file

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 11

access(2)
$ cc -Wall access.c
$ ./a.out /etc/passwd
access ok for /etc/passwd
open ok for /etc/passwd
$ ./a.out /etc/master.passwd
access error for /etc/master.passwd
open error for /etc/master.passwd
$ sudo chown root a.out
$ sudo chmod 4755 a.out
$ ./a.out /etc/passwd
access ok for /etc/passwd
open ok for /etc/passwd
$ ./a.out /etc/master.passwd
access error for /etc/master.passwd
open ok for /etc/master.passwd
$

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 12

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 13

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 14

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission
To open a file with O WRONLY or O RDWR, need write permission

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 15

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission
To open a file with O WRONLY or O RDWR, need write permission
To use O TRUNC, must have write permission

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 16

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission
To open a file with O WRONLY or O RDWR, need write permission
To use O TRUNC, must have write permission
To create a new file, must have write+execute permission for the
directory

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 17

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission
To open a file with O WRONLY or O RDWR, need write permission
To use O TRUNC, must have write permission
To create a new file, must have write+execute permission for the
directory
To delete a file, need write+execute on directory, file doesnt matter

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 18

struct stat: st mode

st mode also encodes the file access permissions (S IRUSR, S IWUSR,
S IXUSR, S IRGRP, S IWGRP, S IXGRP, S IROTH, S IWOTH, S IXOTH). Uses of
the permissions are summarized as follows:
To open a file, need execute permission on each directory
component of the path
To open a file with O RDONLY or O RDWR, need read permission
To open a file with O WRONLY or O RDWR, need write permission
To use O TRUNC, must have write permission
To create a new file, must have write+execute permission for the
directory
To delete a file, need write+execute on directory, file doesnt matter
To execute a file (via exec family), need execute permission

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 19

struct stat: st mode

Which permission set to use is determined (in order listed):
1. If effective-uid == 0, grant access

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 20

struct stat: st mode

Which permission set to use is determined (in order listed):
1. If effective-uid == 0, grant access
2. If effective-uid == st uid
2.1. if appropriate user permission bit is set, grant access
2.2. else, deny access

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 21

struct stat: st mode

Which permission set to use is determined (in order listed):
1. If effective-uid == 0, grant access
2. If effective-uid == st uid
2.1. if appropriate user permission bit is set, grant access
2.2. else, deny access
3. If effective-gid == st gid
3.1. if appropriate group permission bit is set, grant access
3.2. else, deny access

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 22

struct stat: st mode

Which permission set to use is determined (in order listed):
1. If effective-uid == 0, grant access
2. If effective-uid == st uid
2.1. if appropriate user permission bit is set, grant access
2.2. else, deny access
3. If effective-gid == st gid
3.1. if appropriate group permission bit is set, grant access
3.2. else, deny access
4. If appropriate other permission bit is set, grant access, else deny
access

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 23

struct stat: st mode

Ownership of new files and directories:
st uid = effective-uid
st gid = ...either:
effective-gid of process
gid of directory in which it is being created

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 24

umask(2)
#include <sys/stat.h>
mode t umask(mode t numask);
Returns: previous file mode creation mask

umask(2) sets the file creation mode mask. Any bits that are on in the file
creation mask are turned off in the files mode.
Important because a user can set a default umask. If a program needs to
be able to insure certain permissions on a file, it may need to turn off (or
modify) the umask, which affects only the current process.

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 25

umask(2)
$ cc -Wall umask.c
$ umask 022
$ touch foo
$ ./a.out
$ ls -l foo*
-rw-r--r-- 1 jschauma
-rw-r--r-- 1 jschauma
-rw-rw-rw- 1 jschauma
-rw------- 1 jschauma

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

staff
staff
staff
staff

0
0
0
0

Sep
Sep
Sep
Sep

26
26
26
26

18:35
18:36
18:36
18:36

foo
foo1
foo2
foo3

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 26

chmod(2), lchmod(2) and fchmod(2)

#include <sys/stat.h>
int chmod(const char *path, mode t mode);
int lchmod(const char *path, mode t mode);
int fchmod(int fd, mode t mode);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error

Changes the permission bits on the file. Must be either superuser or

effective uid == st uid. mode can be any of the bits from our discussion
of st mode as well as:
S ISUID setuid
S ISGID setgid
S ISVTX sticky bit (aka saved text)
S IRWXU user read, write and execute
S IRWXG group read, write and execute
S IRWXO other read, write and execute

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 27

chmod(2), lchmod(2) and fchmod(2)

$ rm foo*
$ umask 077
$ touch foo foo1
$ chmod a+rx foo
$ ls -l foo*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 jschaumann
-rw------- 1 jschaumann
$ cc -Wall chmod.c
$ ./a.out
$ ls -l foo foo1
-rwsr--r-x 1 jschaumann
-rw-r--r-- 1 jschaumann
$

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

staff
staff

0 Sep 15 23:00 foo

0 Sep 15 23:00 foo1

staff
staff

0 Sep 15 23:01 foo

0 Sep 15 23:01 foo1

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 28

chown(2), lchown(2) and fchown(2)

#include <unistd.h>
int chown(const char *path, uid t owner, gid t group);
int lchown(const char *path, uid t owner, gid t group);
int fchown(int fd, uid t owner, gid t group);
Returns: 0 if OK, -1 on error

Changes st uid and st gid for a file. For BSD, must be superuser.
Some SVR4s let users chown files they own. POSIX.1 allows either
depending on POSIX CHOWN RESTRICTED (a kernel constant).
owner or group can be -1 to indicate that it should remain the same.
Non-superusers can change the st gid field if both:
effective-user ID == st uid and
owner == files user ID and group == effective-group ID (or one of the
supplementary group IDs)
chown and friends (should) clear all setuid or setgid bits.
Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 29

Directory sizes (on a system using UFS)

$ cd /tmp
$ mkdir -p /tmp/d
$ ls -ld /tmp/d
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma wheel 512 Sep 26 19:35 /tmp/d
$ touch d/a d/b d/c d/d d/e d/f d/g
$ ls -ld /tmp/d
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma wheel 512 Sep 26 19:35 /tmp/d
$ touch d/$(jot -b a 255 | tr -d [:space:])
$ ls -ld /tmp/d
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma wheel 512 Sep 26 19:35 /tmp/d
$ touch d/$(jot -b b 255 | tr -d [:space:])
$ ls -ld /tmp/d
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma wheel 1024 Sep 26 19:37 /tmp/d
$ rm /tmp/d/a*
$ ls -ld /tmp/d
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma wheel 1024 Sep 26 19:37 /tmp/d
$
Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 30

Directory sizes (on a system using HFS+)

$ cd /tmp
$ mkdir -p /tmp/d
$ cd /tmp/d
$ ls -ld
drwxr-xr-x 2 jschauma
$ touch a
$ ls -ld
drwxr-xr-x 3 jschauma
$ echo $((102 / 3))
34
$ touch c
$ ls -ld
drwxr-xr-x 4 jschauma
$ rm c
$ ls -ld
drwxr-xr-x 3 jschauma
$
Lecture 03: Files and Directories

wheel

68 Sep 24 18:52 .

wheel

102 Sep 24 18:52 .

wheel

136 Sep 24 18:52 .

wheel

102 Sep 24 18:52 .

September 19, 2016

CS631 - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment

Slide 31

Homework
Reading:
manual pages for the functions covered
Stevens Chap. 4.1 through 4.13
Playing:
in your shell, set your umask to various values and see what happens
to new files you create (example: Stevens # 4.3)
Verify that turning off user-read permission for a file that you own
denies you access to the file, even if group- or other permissions
allow reading.
Midterm Assignment:
https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/631/f16-midterm.html

Lecture 03: Files and Directories

September 19, 2016