xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/sys/setuid.2 (revision 6550d01e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: setuid.2,v 1.22 2010/04/05 07:44:28 wiz Exp $
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30.\"     @(#)setuid.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
31.\"
32.Dd April 3, 2010
33.Dt SETUID 2
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm setuid ,
37.Nm seteuid ,
38.Nm setgid ,
39.Nm setegid
40.Nd set user and group ID
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In unistd.h
45.Ft int
46.Fn setuid "uid_t uid"
47.Ft int
48.Fn seteuid "uid_t euid"
49.Ft int
50.Fn setgid "gid_t gid"
51.Ft int
52.Fn setegid "gid_t egid"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The
55.Fn setuid
56function
57sets the real and effective
58user IDs and the saved set-user-ID of the current process
59to the specified value.
60The
61.Fn setuid
62function is permitted if the specified ID is equal to the real user ID
63of the process, or if the effective user ID is that of the super user.
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn setgid
67function
68sets the real and effective
69group IDs and the saved set-group-ID of the current process
70to the specified value.
71The
72.Fn setgid
73function is permitted if the specified ID is equal to the real group ID
74of the process, or if the effective user ID is that of the super user.
75Supplementary group IDs remain unchanged.
76.Pp
77The
78.Fn seteuid
79function
80.Pq Fn setegid
81sets the effective user ID (group ID) of the
82current process.
83The effective user ID may be set to the value
84of the real user ID or the saved set-user-ID (see
85.Xr intro 2
86and
87.Xr execve 2 ) ;
88in this way, the effective user ID of a set-user-ID executable
89may be toggled by switching to the real user ID, then re-enabled
90by reverting to the set-user-ID value.
91Similarly, the effective group ID may be set to the value
92of the real group ID or the saved set-group-ID.
93.Sh RETURN VALUES
94Upon success, these functions return 0;
95otherwise \-1 is returned.
96.Pp
97If the user is not the super user, or the uid
98specified is not the real, effective ID, or saved ID,
99these functions return \-1.
100.Sh SEE ALSO
101.Xr getgid 2 ,
102.Xr getgroups 2 ,
103.Xr getuid 2
104.Sh STANDARDS
105The
106.Fn setuid
107and
108.Fn setgid
109functions are compliant with the
110.St -p1003.1-90
111specification with
112.Li _POSIX_SAVED_IDS
113not defined.
114We do not implement the
115.Li _POSIX_SAVED_IDS
116option as specified in the standard
117because this would make it impossible for a set-user-ID executable owned
118by a user other than the super-user to permanently revoke its privileges.
119.Pp
120The
121.Fn seteuid
122and
123.Fn setegid
124functions are compliant with
125.St -p1003.1-2001 .
126.Sh HISTORY
127The
128.Fn setuid
129and
130.Fn setgid
131functions appeared in
132.At v2
133and
134.At v4 ,
135respectively.
136