fanotify_mark(2)

SECCIƓN: 2 - Llamadas al sistema

fanotify_mark(2) System Calls Manual fanotify_mark(2)

NAME

fanotify_mark - add, remove, or modify an fanotify mark on a filesystem

object

LIBRARY

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/fanotify.h>

int fanotify_mark(int fanotify_fd, unsigned int flags,

uint64_t mask, int dirfd,

const char *_Nullable pathname);

DESCRIPTION

For an overview of the fanotify API, see fanotify(7).

fanotify_mark() adds, removes, or modifies an fanotify mark on a

filesystem object. The caller must have read permission on the

filesystem object that is to be marked.

The fanotify_fd argument is a file descriptor returned by fan‐

otify_init(2).

flags is a bit mask describing the modification to perform. It must

include exactly one of the following values:

FAN_MARK_ADD

The events in mask will be added to the mark mask (or to the ig‐

nore mask). mask must be nonempty or the error EINVAL will oc‐

cur.

FAN_MARK_REMOVE

The events in argument mask will be removed from the mark mask

(or from the ignore mask). mask must be nonempty or the error

EINVAL will occur.

FAN_MARK_FLUSH

Remove either all marks for filesystems, all marks for mounts,

or all marks for directories and files from the fanotify group.

If flags contains FAN_MARK_MOUNT, all marks for mounts are re‐

moved from the group. If flags contains FAN_MARK_FILESYSTEM,

all marks for filesystems are removed from the group. Other‐

wise, all marks for directories and files are removed. No flag

other than, and at most one of, the flags FAN_MARK_MOUNT or

FAN_MARK_FILESYSTEM can be used in conjunction with

FAN_MARK_FLUSH. mask is ignored.

If none of the values above is specified, or more than one is speci‐

fied, the call fails with the error EINVAL.

In addition, zero or more of the following values may be ORed into

flags:

FAN_MARK_DONT_FOLLOW

If pathname is a symbolic link, mark the link itself, rather

than the file to which it refers. (By default, fanotify_mark()

dereferences pathname if it is a symbolic link.)

FAN_MARK_ONLYDIR

If the filesystem object to be marked is not a directory, the

error ENOTDIR shall be raised.

FAN_MARK_MOUNT

Mark the mount specified by pathname. If pathname is not itself

a mount point, the mount containing pathname will be marked.

All directories, subdirectories, and the contained files of the

mount will be monitored. The events which require that filesys‐

tem objects are identified by file handles, such as FAN_CREATE,

FAN_ATTRIB, FAN_MOVE, and FAN_DELETE_SELF, cannot be provided as

a mask when flags contains FAN_MARK_MOUNT. Attempting to do so

will result in the error EINVAL being returned. Use of this

flag requires the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.

FAN_MARK_FILESYSTEM (since Linux 4.20)

Mark the filesystem specified by pathname. The filesystem con‐

taining pathname will be marked. All the contained files and

directories of the filesystem from any mount point will be moni‐

tored. Use of this flag requires the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability.

FAN_MARK_IGNORED_MASK

The events in mask shall be added to or removed from the ignore

mask. Note that the flags FAN_ONDIR, and FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD

have no effect when provided with this flag. The effect of set‐

ting the flags FAN_ONDIR, and FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD in the mark

mask on the events that are set in the ignore mask is undefined

and depends on the Linux kernel version. Specifically, prior to

Linux 5.9, setting a mark mask on a file and a mark with ignore

mask on its parent directory would not result in ignoring events

on the file, regardless of the FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD flag in the

parent directory's mark mask. When the ignore mask is updated

with the FAN_MARK_IGNORED_MASK flag on a mark that was previ‐

ously updated with the FAN_MARK_IGNORE flag, the update fails

with EEXIST error.

FAN_MARK_IGNORE (since Linux 6.0)

This flag has a similar effect as setting the FAN_MARK_IG‐

NORED_MASK flag. The events in mask shall be added to or re‐

moved from the ignore mask. Unlike the FAN_MARK_IGNORED_MASK

flag, this flag also has the effect that the FAN_ONDIR, and

FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD flags take effect on the ignore mask.

Specifically, unless the FAN_ONDIR flag is set with FAN_MARK_IG‐

NORE, events on directories will not be ignored. If the flag

FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD is set with FAN_MARK_IGNORE, events on chil‐

dren will be ignored. For example, a mark on a directory with

combination of a mask with FAN_CREATE event and FAN_ONDIR flag

and an ignore mask with FAN_CREATE event and without FAN_ONDIR

flag, will result in getting only the events for creation of

sub-directories. When using the FAN_MARK_IGNORE flag to add to

an ignore mask of a mount, filesystem, or directory inode mark,

the FAN_MARK_IGNORED_SURV_MODIFY flag must be specified. Fail‐

ure to do so will results with EINVAL or EISDIR error.

FAN_MARK_IGNORED_SURV_MODIFY

The ignore mask shall survive modify events. If this flag is

not set, the ignore mask is cleared when a modify event occurs

on the marked object. Omitting this flag is typically used to

suppress events (e.g., FAN_OPEN) for a specific file, until that

specific file's content has been modified. It is far less use‐

ful to suppress events on an entire filesystem, or mount, or on

all files inside a directory, until some file's content has been

modified. For this reason, the FAN_MARK_IGNORE flag requires

the FAN_MARK_IGNORED_SURV_MODIFY flag on a mount, filesystem, or

directory inode mark. This flag cannot be removed from a mark

once set. When the ignore mask is updated without this flag on

a mark that was previously updated with the FAN_MARK_IGNORE and

FAN_MARK_IGNORED_SURV_MODIFY flags, the update fails with EEXIST

error.

FAN_MARK_IGNORE_SURV

This is a synonym for (FAN_MARK_IGNORE|FAN_MARK_IG‐

NORED_SURV_MODIFY).

FAN_MARK_EVICTABLE (since Linux 5.19)

When an inode mark is created with this flag, the inode object

will not be pinned to the inode cache, therefore, allowing the

inode object to be evicted from the inode cache when the memory

pressure on the system is high. The eviction of the inode ob‐

ject results in the evictable mark also being lost. When the

mask of an evictable inode mark is updated without using the

FAN_MARK_EVICATBLE flag, the marked inode is pinned to inode

cache and the mark is no longer evictable. When the mask of a

non-evictable inode mark is updated with the FAN_MARK_EVICTABLE

flag, the inode mark remains non-evictable and the update fails

with EEXIST error. Mounts and filesystems are not evictable ob‐

jects, therefore, an attempt to create a mount mark or a

filesystem mark with the FAN_MARK_EVICTABLE flag, will result in

the error EINVAL. For example, inode marks can be used in com‐

bination with mount marks to reduce the amount of events from

noninteresting paths. The event listener reads events, checks

if the path reported in the event is of interest, and if it is

not, the listener sets a mark with an ignore mask on the direc‐

tory. Evictable inode marks allow using this method for a large

number of directories without the concern of pinning all inodes

and exhausting the system's memory.

mask defines which events shall be listened for (or which shall be ig‐

nored). It is a bit mask composed of the following values:

FAN_ACCESS

Create an event when a file or directory (but see BUGS) is ac‐

cessed (read).

FAN_MODIFY

Create an event when a file is modified (write).

FAN_CLOSE_WRITE

Create an event when a writable file is closed.

FAN_CLOSE_NOWRITE

Create an event when a read-only file or directory is closed.

FAN_OPEN

Create an event when a file or directory is opened.

FAN_OPEN_EXEC (since Linux 5.0)

Create an event when a file is opened with the intent to be exe‐

cuted. See NOTES for additional details.

FAN_ATTRIB (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when the metadata for a file or directory has

changed. An fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects

by file handles is required.

FAN_CREATE (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a file or directory has been created in a

marked parent directory. An fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles is required.

FAN_DELETE (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a file or directory has been deleted in a

marked parent directory. An fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles is required.

FAN_DELETE_SELF (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a marked file or directory itself is

deleted. An fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects

by file handles is required.

FAN_FS_ERROR (since Linux 5.16)

Create an event when a filesystem error leading to inconsistent

filesystem metadata is detected. An additional information

record of type FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_ERROR is returned for each

event in the read buffer. An fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles is required.

Events of such type are dependent on support from the underlying

filesystem. At the time of writing, only the ext4 filesystem

reports FAN_FS_ERROR events.

See fanotify(7) for additional details.

FAN_MOVED_FROM (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a file or directory has been moved from a

marked parent directory. An fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles is required.

FAN_MOVED_TO (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a file or directory has been moved to a

marked parent directory. An fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles is required.

FAN_RENAME (since Linux 5.17)

This event contains the same information provided by events

FAN_MOVED_FROM and FAN_MOVED_TO, however is represented by a

single event with up to two information records. An fanotify

group that identifies filesystem objects by file handles is re‐

quired. If the filesystem object to be marked is not a direc‐

tory, the error ENOTDIR shall be raised.

FAN_MOVE_SELF (since Linux 5.1)

Create an event when a marked file or directory itself has been

moved. An fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects by

file handles is required.

FAN_OPEN_PERM

Create an event when a permission to open a file or directory is

requested. An fanotify file descriptor created with

FAN_CLASS_PRE_CONTENT or FAN_CLASS_CONTENT is required.

FAN_OPEN_EXEC_PERM (since Linux 5.0)

Create an event when a permission to open a file for execution

is requested. An fanotify file descriptor created with

FAN_CLASS_PRE_CONTENT or FAN_CLASS_CONTENT is required. See

NOTES for additional details.

FAN_ACCESS_PERM

Create an event when a permission to read a file or directory is

requested. An fanotify file descriptor created with

FAN_CLASS_PRE_CONTENT or FAN_CLASS_CONTENT is required.

FAN_ONDIR

Create events for directories—for example, when opendir(3),

readdir(3) (but see BUGS), and closedir(3) are called. Without

this flag, events are created only for files. In the context of

directory entry events, such as FAN_CREATE, FAN_DELETE,

FAN_MOVED_FROM, and FAN_MOVED_TO, specifying the flag FAN_ONDIR

is required in order to create events when subdirectory entries

are modified (i.e., mkdir(2)/ rmdir(2)).

FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD

Events for the immediate children of marked directories shall be

created. The flag has no effect when marking mounts and

filesystems. Note that events are not generated for children of

the subdirectories of marked directories. More specifically,

the directory entry modification events FAN_CREATE, FAN_DELETE,

FAN_MOVED_FROM, and FAN_MOVED_TO are not generated for any entry

modifications performed inside subdirectories of marked directo‐

ries. Note that the events FAN_DELETE_SELF and FAN_MOVE_SELF

are not generated for children of marked directories. To moni‐

tor complete directory trees it is necessary to mark the rele‐

vant mount or filesystem.

The following composed values are defined:

FAN_CLOSE

A file is closed (FAN_CLOSE_WRITE|FAN_CLOSE_NOWRITE).

FAN_MOVE

A file or directory has been moved

(FAN_MOVED_FROM|FAN_MOVED_TO).

The filesystem object to be marked is determined by the file descriptor

dirfd and the pathname specified in pathname:

• If pathname is NULL, dirfd defines the filesystem object to be

marked.

• If pathname is NULL, and dirfd takes the special value AT_FDCWD, the

current working directory is to be marked.

• If pathname is absolute, it defines the filesystem object to be

marked, and dirfd is ignored.

• If pathname is relative, and dirfd does not have the value AT_FDCWD,

then the filesystem object to be marked is determined by interpret‐

ing pathname relative the directory referred to by dirfd.

• If pathname is relative, and dirfd has the value AT_FDCWD, then the

filesystem object to be marked is determined by interpreting path‐

name relative to the current working directory. (See openat(2) for

an explanation of why the dirfd argument is useful.)

RETURN VALUE

On success, fanotify_mark() returns 0. On error, -1 is returned, and

errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

EBADF An invalid file descriptor was passed in fanotify_fd.

EBADF pathname is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid

file descriptor.

EEXIST The filesystem object indicated by dirfd and pathname has a mark

that was updated without the FAN_MARK_EVICTABLE flag, and the

user attempted to update the mark with FAN_MARK_EVICTABLE flag.

EEXIST The filesystem object indicated by dirfd and pathname has a mark

that was updated with the FAN_MARK_IGNORE flag, and the user at‐

tempted to update the mark with FAN_MARK_IGNORED_MASK flag.

EEXIST The filesystem object indicated by dirfd and pathname has a mark

that was updated with the FAN_MARK_IGNORE and FAN_MARK_IG‐

NORED_SURV_MODIFY flags, and the user attempted to update the

mark only with FAN_MARK_IGNORE flag.

EINVAL An invalid value was passed in flags or mask, or fanotify_fd was

not an fanotify file descriptor.

EINVAL The fanotify file descriptor was opened with FAN_CLASS_NOTIF or

the fanotify group identifies filesystem objects by file handles

and mask contains a flag for permission events (FAN_OPEN_PERM or

FAN_ACCESS_PERM).

EINVAL The group was initialized without FAN_REPORT_FID but one or more

event types specified in the mask require it.

EINVAL flags contains FAN_MARK_IGNORE, and either FAN_MARK_MOUNT or

FAN_MARK_FILESYSTEM, but does not contain FAN_MARK_IG‐

NORED_SURV_MODIFY.

EISDIR flags contains FAN_MARK_IGNORE, but does not contain

FAN_MARK_IGNORED_SURV_MODIFY, and dirfd and pathname specify a

directory.

ENODEV The filesystem object indicated by dirfd and pathname is not as‐

sociated with a filesystem that supports fsid (e.g., fuse(4)).

tmpfs(5) did not support fsid prior to Linux 5.13. This error

can be returned only with an fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles.

ENOENT The filesystem object indicated by dirfd and pathname does not

exist. This error also occurs when trying to remove a mark from

an object which is not marked.

ENOMEM The necessary memory could not be allocated.

ENOSPC The number of marks for this user exceeds the limit and the

FAN_UNLIMITED_MARKS flag was not specified when the fanotify

file descriptor was created with fanotify_init(2). See fan‐

otify(7) for details about this limit.

ENOSYS This kernel does not implement fanotify_mark(). The fanotify

API is available only if the kernel was configured with CON‐

FIG_FANOTIFY.

ENOTDIR

flags contains FAN_MARK_ONLYDIR, and dirfd and pathname do not

specify a directory.

ENOTDIR

mask contains FAN_RENAME, and dirfd and pathname do not specify

a directory.

ENOTDIR

flags contains FAN_MARK_IGNORE, or the fanotify group was ini‐

tialized with flag FAN_REPORT_TARGET_FID, and mask contains di‐

rectory entry modification events (e.g., FAN_CREATE,

FAN_DELETE), or directory event flags (e.g., FAN_ONDIR,

FAN_EVENT_ON_CHILD), and dirfd and pathname do not specify a di‐

rectory.

EOPNOTSUPP

The object indicated by pathname is associated with a filesystem

that does not support the encoding of file handles. This error

can be returned only with an fanotify group that identifies

filesystem objects by file handles.

EPERM The operation is not permitted because the caller lacks a re‐

quired capability.

EXDEV The filesystem object indicated by pathname resides within a

filesystem subvolume (e.g., btrfs(5)) which uses a different

fsid than its root superblock. This error can be returned only

with an fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects by

file handles.

VERSIONS

fanotify_mark() was introduced in Linux 2.6.36 and enabled in Linux

2.6.37.

STANDARDS

This system call is Linux-specific.

NOTES

FAN_OPEN_EXEC and FAN_OPEN_EXEC_PERM

When using either FAN_OPEN_EXEC or FAN_OPEN_EXEC_PERM within the mask,

events of these types will be returned only when the direct execution

of a program occurs. More specifically, this means that events of

these types will be generated for files that are opened using ex‐

ecve(2), execveat(2), or uselib(2). Events of these types will not be

raised in the situation where an interpreter is passed (or reads) a

file for interpretation.

Additionally, if a mark has also been placed on the Linux dynamic

linker, a user should also expect to receive an event for it when an

ELF object has been successfully opened using execve(2) or execveat(2).

For example, if the following ELF binary were to be invoked and a

FAN_OPEN_EXEC mark has been placed on /:

$ /bin/echo foo

The listening application in this case would receive FAN_OPEN_EXEC

events for both the ELF binary and interpreter, respectively:

/bin/echo

/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

BUGS

The following bugs were present in before Linux 3.16:

• If flags contains FAN_MARK_FLUSH, dirfd, and pathname must specify a

valid filesystem object, even though this object is not used.

• readdir(2) does not generate a FAN_ACCESS event.

• If fanotify_mark() is called with FAN_MARK_FLUSH, flags is not

checked for invalid values.

SEE ALSO

fanotify_init(2), fanotify(7)

Linux man-pages 6.03 2023-02-05 fanotify_mark(2)

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