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SETFSGID(2)                Linux Programmer's Manual               SETFSGID(2)

NAME
       setfsgid - set group identity used for filesystem checks

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/fsuid.h>

       int setfsgid(uid_t fsgid);

DESCRIPTION
       On  Linux,  a  process  has both a filesystem group ID and an effective
       group ID.  The (Linux-specific) filesystem group ID is used for permis-
       sions  checking  when accessing filesystem objects, while the effective
       group ID is used for some other kinds of permissions checks  (see  cre-
       dentials(7)).

       Normally, the value of the process's filesystem group ID is the same as
       the value of its effective group ID.  This is so,  because  whenever  a
       process's  effective  group  ID is changed, the kernel also changes the
       filesystem group ID to be the same as the new value  of  the  effective
       group  ID.  A process can cause the value of its filesystem group ID to
       diverge from its effective group ID by using setfsgid() to  change  its
       filesystem group ID to the value given in fsgid.

       setfsgid() will succeed only if the caller is the superuser or if fsgid
       matches either the caller's real group ID, effective  group  ID,  saved
       set-group-ID, or current the filesystem user ID.

RETURN VALUE
       On  both success and failure, this call returns the previous filesystem
       group ID of the caller.

VERSIONS
       This system call is present in Linux since version 1.2.

CONFORMING TO
       setfsgid() is Linux-specific and should not be  used  in  programs  in-
       tended to be portable.

NOTES
       The filesystem group ID concept and the setfsgid() system call were in-
       vented for historical reasons that are no longer applicable  on  modern
       Linux kernels.  See setfsuid(2) for a discussion of why the use of both
       setfsuid(2) and setfsgid() is nowadays unneeded.

       The original Linux setfsgid() system call supported only  16-bit  group
       IDs.  Subsequently, Linux 2.4 added setfsgid32() supporting 32-bit IDs.
       The glibc setfsgid() wrapper  function  transparently  deals  with  the
       variation across kernel versions.

   C library/kernel differences
       In glibc 2.15 and earlier, when the wrapper for this system call deter-
       mines that the argument can't be passed to the kernel  without  integer
       truncation (because the kernel is old and does not support 32-bit group
       IDs), it will return -1 and set errno to EINVAL without attempting  the
       system call.

BUGS
       No  error  indications  of any kind are returned to the caller, and the
       fact that both successful and unsuccessful calls return the same  value
       makes it impossible to directly determine whether the call succeeded or
       failed.  Instead, the caller must resort to looking at the return value
       from  a  further call such as setfsgid(-1) (which will always fail), in
       order to determine if  a  preceding  call  to  setfsgid()  changed  the
       filesystem  group ID.  At the very least, EPERM should be returned when
       the call fails (because the caller lacks the CAP_SETGID capability).

SEE ALSO
       kill(2), setfsuid(2), capabilities(7), credentials(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2019-05-09                       SETFSGID(2)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | VERSIONS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON