ACL_DELETE_DEF_FILE(3) Library Functions Manual ACL_DELETE_DEF_FILE(3)

acl_delete_def_file, acl_delete_def_file_at — delete a default ACL by filename

Linux Access Control Lists library (libacl, -lacl).

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/acl.h>

int
acl_delete_def_file(const char *path_p);

int
acl_delete_def_file_at(int dirfd, const char *path_p, int at_flags);

The () function deletes a default ACL from the directory whose pathname is given in path_p. If path_p is a symbolic link, acl_delete_def_file() operates on the directory the link refers to.

The effective user ID of the process must match the owner of the file or directory or the process must have the CAP_FOWNER capability for the request to succeed.

If the argument path_p is not a directory, then the function fails. It is no error if the directory whose pathname is pointed to by the argument path_p does not have a default ACL.

The acl_delete_def_file_at() function operates in exactly the same way as acl_delete_def_file(), except for the differences described here.

If the pathname given in path_p is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by ()).

If path_p is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then path_p is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like ()).

If path_p is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

The at_flags argument can either be 0, or include one or more of the following flags ORed:

If path_p is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by dirfd (which may have been obtained using the open(2) O_PATH flag). In this case, dirfd can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.
If path_p refers to a symbolic link, do not dereference it: instead, fail the operation and set the global variable errno to ENOTSUP. This indicates that the symbolic link cannot have ACLs.

The acl_delete_def_file() and acl_delete_def_file_at() functions return the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

If any of the following conditions occur, the acl_delete_def_file() and acl_delete_def_file_at() functions return the value -1 and set errno to the corresponding value:

[]
The argument path_p is relative but the argument dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.
[]
The file referred to by path_p is not a directory.

An invalid flag was specified in the at_flags argument.

[]
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

The argument path_p is relative and the argument dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.

[]
The argument at_flags includes the flag AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW and path_p is a symbolic link.

The file system on which the file identified by path_p is located does not support ACLs, or ACLs are disabled.

[]
The process does not have appropriate privilege to perform the operation to delete the default ACL.
[]
This function requires modification of a file system which is currently read-only.

IEEE Std 1003.1e draft 17 (“POSIX.1e”, abandoned)

Function acl_delete_def_file_at() is a Linux specific extension.

acl_get_file(3), acl_set_file(3), acl(5)

Derived from the FreeBSD manual pages written by Robert N M Watson ⟨rwatson@FreeBSD.org⟩, and adapted for Linux by Andreas Gruenbacher ⟨andreas.gruenbacher@gmail.com⟩.

June 5, 2026 Linux ACL