xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/sticky.7 (revision e0c4386e)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
28.Dd June 5, 1993
29.Dt STICKY 7
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm sticky
33.Nd sticky text and append-only directories
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35A special file mode, called the
36.Em sticky bit
37(mode S_ISTXT),
38is used to indicate special treatment
39for directories.
40It is ignored for regular files.
41See
42.Xr chmod 2
43or
44the file
45.In sys/stat.h
46for an explanation of file modes.
47.Sh STICKY DIRECTORIES
48A directory whose `sticky bit' is set
49becomes an append-only directory, or, more accurately,
50a directory in which the deletion of files is restricted.
51A file in a sticky directory may only be removed or renamed
52by a user if the user has write permission for the directory and
53the user is the owner of the file, the owner of the directory,
54or the super-user.
55This feature is usefully applied to directories such as
56.Pa /tmp
57which must be publicly writable but
58should deny users the license to arbitrarily
59delete or rename each others' files.
60.Pp
61Any user may create a sticky directory.
62See
63.Xr chmod 1
64for details about modifying file modes.
65.Sh HISTORY
66A
67.Nm
68command appeared in
69.At 32v .
70.Sh BUGS
71Neither
72.Xr open 2
73nor
74.Xr mkdir 2
75will create a file with the sticky bit set.
76