1 .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
2 .\" All rights reserved.
4 .\" %%%LICENSE_START(BSD_4_CLAUSE_UCB)
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34 .\" @(#)truncate.2 6.9 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
36 .\" Modified 1993-07-24 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu>
37 .\" Modified 1996-10-22 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
38 .\" Modified 1998-12-21 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
39 .\" Modified 2002-01-07 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
40 .\" Modified 2002-04-06 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
41 .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
43 .TH TRUNCATE 2 2021-03-22 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
45 truncate, ftruncate \- truncate a file to a specified length
48 .B #include <unistd.h>
50 .BI "int truncate(const char *" path ", off_t " length );
51 .BI "int ftruncate(int " fd ", off_t " length );
55 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
56 .BR feature_test_macros (7)):
62 .\" || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
63 || /* Since glibc 2.12: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
64 || /* Glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
70 .\" || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED
71 || /* Since glibc 2.3.5: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
72 || /* Glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
79 functions cause the regular file named by
83 to be truncated to a size of precisely
87 If the file previously was larger than this size, the extra data is lost.
88 If the file previously was shorter, it is extended, and
89 the extended part reads as null bytes (\(aq\e0\(aq).
91 The file offset is not changed.
93 If the size changed, then the st_ctime and st_mtime fields
94 (respectively, time of last status change and
95 time of last modification; see
97 for the file are updated,
98 and the set-user-ID and set-group-ID mode bits may be cleared.
102 the file must be open for writing; with
104 the file must be writable.
106 On success, zero is returned.
107 On error, \-1 is returned, and
109 is set to indicate the error.
115 Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix,
116 or the named file is not writable by the user.
118 .BR path_resolution (7).)
123 points outside the process's allocated address space.
128 is larger than the maximum file size. (XSI)
131 While blocked waiting to complete,
132 the call was interrupted by a signal handler; see
140 is negative or larger than the maximum file size.
143 An I/O error occurred updating the inode.
146 The named file is a directory.
149 Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
152 A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
153 or an entire pathname exceeded 1023 characters.
156 The named file does not exist.
159 A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
162 .\" This happens for at least MSDOS and VFAT filesystems
164 The underlying filesystem does not support extending
165 a file beyond its current size.
168 The operation was prevented by a file seal; see
172 The named file resides on a read-only filesystem.
175 The file is an executable file that is being executed.
179 the same errors apply, but instead of things that can be wrong with
181 we now have things that can be wrong with the file descriptor,
186 is not a valid file descriptor.
188 .BR EBADF " or " EINVAL
190 is not open for writing.
194 does not reference a regular file or a POSIX shared memory object.
196 .BR EINVAL " or " EBADF
199 is not open for writing.
200 POSIX permits, and portable applications should handle,
201 either error for this case.
205 POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008,
206 4.4BSD, SVr4 (these calls first appeared in 4.2BSD).
208 .\" .BR ftruncate ().
209 .\" POSIX.1-2001 also has
211 .\" as an XSI extension.
213 .\" SVr4 documents additional
215 .\" error conditions EMFILE, EMULTIHP, ENFILE, ENOLINK. SVr4 documents for
217 .\" an additional EAGAIN error condition.
220 can also be used to set the size of a POSIX shared memory object; see
223 The details in DESCRIPTION are for XSI-compliant systems.
224 For non-XSI-compliant systems, the POSIX standard allows
229 exceeds the file length
232 is not specified at all in such an environment):
233 either returning an error, or extending the file.
234 Like most UNIX implementations, Linux follows the XSI requirement
235 when dealing with native filesystems.
236 However, some nonnative filesystems do not permit
240 to be used to extend a file beyond its current length:
241 a notable example on Linux is VFAT.
242 .\" At the very least: OSF/1, Solaris 7, and FreeBSD conform, mtk, Jan 2002
248 system calls were not designed to handle large file offsets.
249 Consequently, Linux 2.4 added
253 system calls that handle large files.
254 However, these details can be ignored by applications using glibc, whose
255 wrapper functions transparently employ the more recent system calls
256 where they are available.
258 On some 32-bit architectures,
259 the calling signature for these system calls differ,
260 for the reasons described in
263 A header file bug in glibc 2.12 meant that the minimum value of
264 .\" http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=12037
266 required to expose the declaration of
268 was 200809L instead of 200112L.
269 This has been fixed in later glibc versions.
274 .BR path_resolution (7)