NAME

string_to_flags, flags_to_string — Stat flags parsing and printing functions

LIBRARY

System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)

SYNOPSIS

#include <util.h>

char *
flags_to_string(u_long flags, const char *def);

int
string_to_flags(char **stringp, u_long *setp, u_long clrp);

DESCRIPTION

The flags_to_string() and string_to_flags() functions are used by programs such as ls(1), mtree(8), makefs(8), etc., to parse and/or print the st_flags field in the stat(2) structure.

They recognize the following flags:

String	Flag	Description
arch	SF_ARCHIVED	file is archived
nodump	UF_NODUMP	do not dump file
opaque	UF_OPAQUE	directory is opaque in union filesystems
sappnd	SF_APPEND	writes to the file may only append
schg	SF_IMMUTABLE	file cannot be changed; it is immutable
snap	SF_SNAPSHOT	file is a snapshot inode
uappnd	UF_APPEND	writes to the file may only append
uchg	UF_IMMUTABLE	file cannot be changed; it is immutable

The SF_APPEND and SF_IMMUTABLE flags are for the superuser only, whereas UF_APPEND and UF_IMMUTABLE are for the user only.

The flags_to_string() function converts the bits set in the flags argument to a comma-separated string and returns it. If no flags are set, then the def string is returned. The returned string is allocated via malloc(3) and it is the responsibility of the caller to free(3) it.

The string_to_flags() function takes a stringp of space, comma, or tab separated flag names and places their bit value on the setp argument. If the flag name is prefixed by: “no”, then the bit value is placed on the clrp argument.

RETURN VALUES

flags_to_string() returns the symbolic representation of flags, the default string, or NULL if allocation failed.

string_to_flags() returns 0 on success and 1 if it fails to parse the string, setting stringp to point to the first string that it failed to parse.

SEE ALSO

chflags(2), stat(2)