FANOTIFY(7) - man - phpMan

 


FANOTIFY(7)
NAME DESCRIPTION ERRORS VERSIONS CONFORMING TO NOTES BUGS EXAMPLES SEE ALSO COLOPHON
FANOTIFY(7)                           Linux Programmer's Manual                          FANOTIFY(7)



NAME
       fanotify - monitoring filesystem events

DESCRIPTION
       The  fanotify API provides notification and interception of filesystem events.  Use cases in‐
       clude virus scanning and hierarchical storage management.  In the original fanotify API, only
       a  limited  set  of  events  was  supported.  In particular, there was no support for create,
       delete, and move events.  The support for those events was added in  Linux  5.1.   (See  ino‐‐
       tify(7) for details of an API that did notify those events pre Linux 5.1.)

       Additional  capabilities compared to the inotify(7) API include the ability to monitor all of
       the objects in a mounted filesystem, the ability to make access permission decisions, and the
       possibility to read or modify files before access by other applications.

       The  following  system  calls  are  used  with  this API: fanotify_init(2), fanotify_mark(2),
       read(2), write(2), and close(2).

   fanotify_init(), fanotify_mark(), and notification groups
       The fanotify_init(2) system call creates and initializes an fanotify notification  group  and
       returns a file descriptor referring to it.

       An fanotify notification group is a kernel-internal object that holds a list of files, direc‐
       tories, filesystems, and mount points for which events shall be created.

       For each entry in an fanotify notification group, two bit masks exist: the mark mask and  the
       ignore mask.  The mark mask defines file activities for which an event shall be created.  The
       ignore mask defines activities for which no event shall be generated.  Having these two types
       of  masks  permits a filesystem, mount point, or directory to be marked for receiving events,
       while at the same time ignoring events for specific objects under a mount point or directory.

       The fanotify_mark(2) system call adds a file, directory, filesystem or mount point to a noti‐
       fication group and specifies which events shall be reported (or ignored), or removes or modi‐
       fies such an entry.

       A possible usage of the ignore mask is for a file cache.  Events of interest for a file cache
       are  modification  of  a  file and closing of the same.  Hence, the cached directory or mount
       point is to be marked to receive these events.  After receiving  the  first  event  informing
       that a file has been modified, the corresponding cache entry will be invalidated.  No further
       modification events for this file are of interest until the file is closed.  Hence, the  mod‐
       ify  event can be added to the ignore mask.  Upon receiving the close event, the modify event
       can be removed from the ignore mask and the file cache entry can be updated.

       The entries in the fanotify notification groups refer to files and directories via their  in‐
       ode  number  and  to mounts via their mount ID.  If files or directories are renamed or moved
       within the same mount, the respective entries survive.  If files or directories  are  deleted
       or  moved  to  another mount or if filesystems or mounts are unmounted, the corresponding en‐
       tries are deleted.

   The event queue
       As events occur on the filesystem objects monitored by a  notification  group,  the  fanotify
       system  generates events that are collected in a queue.  These events can then be read (using
       read(2) or similar) from the fanotify file descriptor returned by fanotify_init(2).

       Two types of events are generated: notification events and permission  events.   Notification
       events  are merely informative and require no action to be taken by the receiving application
       with one exception: if a valid file descriptor is provided within a generic event,  the  file
       descriptor  must  be  closed.  Permission events are requests to the receiving application to
       decide whether permission for a file access shall be granted.  For these events, the  recipi‐
       ent must write a response which decides whether access is granted or not.

       An  event  is removed from the event queue of the fanotify group when it has been read.  Per‐
       mission events that have been read are kept in an internal list of the fanotify  group  until
       either a permission decision has been taken by writing to the fanotify file descriptor or the
       fanotify file descriptor is closed.

   Reading fanotify events
       Calling read(2) for the file descriptor returned by  fanotify_init(2)  blocks  (if  the  flag
       FAN_NONBLOCK  is not specified in the call to fanotify_init(2)) until either a file event oc‐
       curs or the call is interrupted by a signal (see signal(7)).

       The use of one of the flags FAN_REPORT_FID, FAN_REPORT_DIR_FID in fanotify_init(2) influences
       what data structures are returned to the event listener for each event.  Events reported to a
       group initialized with one of these flags will use file handles to  identify  filesystem  ob‐
       jects instead of file descriptors.

       After a successful
              read(2), the read buffer contains one or more of the following structures:

           struct fanotify_event_metadata {
               __u32 event_len;
               __u8 vers;
               __u8 reserved;
               __u16 metadata_len;
               __aligned_u64 mask;
               __s32 fd;
               __s32 pid;
           };

       In  case  of an fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects by file handles, you should
       also expect to receive one or more additional information records of the  structure  detailed
       below following the generic fanotify_event_metadata structure within the read buffer:

           struct fanotify_event_info_header {
               __u8 info_type;
               __u8 pad;
               __u16 len;
           };

           struct fanotify_event_info_fid {
               struct fanotify_event_info_header hdr;
               __kernel_fsid_t fsid;
               unsigned char file_handle[0];
           };

       For  performance  reasons,  it  is  recommended to use a large buffer size (for example, 4096
       bytes), so that multiple events can be retrieved by a single read(2).

       The return value of read(2) is the number of bytes placed in the buffer, or -1 in case of  an
       error (but see BUGS).

       The fields of the fanotify_event_metadata structure are as follows:

       event_len
              This  is the length of the data for the current event and the offset to the next event
              in the buffer.  Unless the group identifies filesystem objects by  file  handles,  the
              value  of  event_len  is  always  FAN_EVENT_METADATA_LEN.  For a group that identifies
              filesystem objects by file handles, event_len also includes the variable  length  file
              identifier records.

       vers   This  field  holds  a  version  number for the structure.  It must be compared to FAN‐‐
              OTIFY_METADATA_VERSION to verify that the structures returned at run  time  match  the
              structures  defined  at  compile  time.  In case of a mismatch, the application should
              abandon trying to use the fanotify file descriptor.

       reserved
              This field is not used.

       metadata_len
              This is the length of the structure.  The field was introduced to facilitate  the  im‐
              plementation  of  optional  headers per event type.  No such optional headers exist in
              the current implementation.

       mask   This is a bit mask describing the event (see below).

       fd     This is an open file descriptor for the object being accessed, or FAN_NOFD if a  queue
              overflow  occurred.  With an fanotify group that identifies filesystem objects by file
              handles, applications should expect this value to be set to FAN_NOFD  for  each  event
              that is received.  The file descriptor can be used to access the contents of the moni‐
              tored file or directory.  The reading application is responsible for closing this file
              descriptor.

              When calling fanotify_init(2), the caller may specify (via the event_f_flags argument)
              various file status flags that are to be set on the open file description that  corre‐
              sponds  to  this  file  descriptor.  In addition, the (kernel-internal) FMODE_NONOTIFY
              file status flag is set on the open file description.  This flag  suppresses  fanotify
              event  generation.   Hence, when the receiver of the fanotify event accesses the noti‐
              fied file or directory using this file descriptor, no additional events will  be  cre‐
              ated.

       pid    If flag FAN_REPORT_TID was set in fanotify_init(2), this is the TID of the thread that
              caused the event.  Otherwise, this the PID of the process that caused the event.

       A program listening to fanotify events can compare this PID to the PID returned by getpid(2),
       to  determine  whether the event is caused by the listener itself, or is due to a file access
       by another process.

       The bit mask in mask indicates which events have occurred for  a  single  filesystem  object.
       Multiple  bits  may  be  set  in this mask, if more than one event occurred for the monitored
       filesystem object.  In particular, consecutive events for  the  same  filesystem  object  and
       originating  from the same process may be merged into a single event, with the exception that
       two permission events are never merged into one queue entry.

       The bits that may appear in mask are as follows:

       FAN_ACCESS
              A file or a directory (but see BUGS) was accessed (read).

       FAN_OPEN
              A file or a directory was opened.

       FAN_OPEN_EXEC
              A file was opened with the intent to be executed.  See NOTES in  fanotify_mark(2)  for
              additional details.

       FAN_ATTRIB
              A file or directory metadata was changed.

       FAN_CREATE
              A child file or directory was created in a watched parent.

       FAN_DELETE
              A child file or directory was deleted in a watched parent.

       FAN_DELETE_SELF
              A watched file or directory was deleted.

       FAN_MOVED_FROM
              A file or directory has been moved from a watched parent directory.

       FAN_MOVED_TO
              A file or directory has been moved to a watched parent directory.

       FAN_MOVE_SELF
              A watched file or directory was moved.

       FAN_MODIFY
              A file was modified.

       FAN_CLOSE_WRITE
              A file that was opened for writing (O_WRONLY or O_RDWR) was closed.

       FAN_CLOSE_NOWRITE
              A file or directory that was opened read-only (O_RDONLY) was closed.

       FAN_Q_OVERFLOW
              The  event queue exceeded the limit of 16384 entries.  This limit can be overridden by
              specifying the FAN_UNLIMITED_QUEUE flag when calling fanotify_init(2).

       FAN_ACCESS_PERM
              An application wants to read a file or directory, for example using read(2)  or  read‐‐
              dir(2).  The reader must write a response (as described below) that determines whether
              the permission to access the filesystem object shall be granted.

       FAN_OPEN_PERM
              An application wants to open a file or directory.  The reader must  write  a  response
              that determines whether the permission to open the filesystem object shall be granted.

       FAN_OPEN_EXEC_PERM
              An  application  wants to open a file for execution.  The reader must write a response
              that determines whether the permission to open the  filesystem  object  for  execution
              shall be granted.  See NOTES in fanotify_mark(2) for additional details.

       To check for any close event, the following bit mask may be used:

       FAN_CLOSE
              A file was closed.  This is a synonym for:

                  FAN_CLOSE_WRITE | FAN_CLOSE_NOWRITE

       To check for any move event, the following bit mask may be used:

       FAN_MOVE
              A file or directory was moved.  This is a synonym for:

                  FAN_MOVED_FROM | FAN_MOVED_TO

       The following bits may appear in mask only in conjunction with other event type bits:

       FAN_ONDIR
              The  events  described  in  the  mask  have occurred on a directory object.  Reporting
              events on directories  requires  setting  this  flag  in  the  mark  mask.   See  fan‐‐
              otify_mark(2) for additional details.  The FAN_ONDIR flag is reported in an event mask
              only if the fanotify group identifies filesystem objects by file handles.

       The fields of the fanotify_event_info_fid structure are as follows:

       hdr    This is a structure of type fanotify_event_info_header.  It is a generic  header  that
              contains information used to describe an additional information record attached to the
              event.  For example, when an fanotify file descriptor is created using FAN_REPORT_FID,
              a  single  information  record  is expected to be attached to the event with info_type
              field value of FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_FID.  When an fanotify file descriptor  is  created
              using  the  combination of FAN_REPORT_FID and FAN_REPORT_DIR_FID, there may be two in‐
              formation  records  attached  to  the  event:  one  with  info_type  field  value   of
              FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID,   identifying  a  parent  directory  object,  and  one  with
              info_type field value of FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_FID, identifying a non-directory  object.
              The  fanotify_event_info_header contains a len field.  The value of len is the size of
              the additional information record  including  the  fanotify_event_info_header  itself.
              The total size of all additional information records is not expected to be bigger than
              ( event_len - metadata_len ).

       fsid   This is a unique identifier of the filesystem containing the  object  associated  with
              the  event.   It is a structure of type __kernel_fsid_t and contains the same value as
              f_fsid when calling statfs(2).

       file_handle
              This is a variable length structure of type struct file_handle.  It is an opaque  han‐
              dle that corresponds to a specified object on a filesystem as returned by name_to_han‐‐
              dle_at(2).  It can be used to uniquely identify a file on  a  filesystem  and  can  be
              passed as an argument to open_by_handle_at(2).  Note that for the directory entry mod‐
              ification events FAN_CREATE, FAN_DELETE, and FAN_MOVE, the file_handle identifies  the
              modified  directory  and  not the created/deleted/moved child object.  If the value of
              info_type field is FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID_NAME, the file handle  is  followed  by  a
              null terminated string that identifies the created/deleted/moved directory entry name.
              For other events such as FAN_OPEN, FAN_ATTRIB, FAN_DELETE_SELF, and FAN_MOVE_SELF,  if
              the  value  of  info_type field is FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_FID, the file_handle identifies
              the  object  correlated  to  the  event.   If  the  value  of   info_type   field   is
              FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID,  the  file_handle identifies the directory object correlated
              to the event or the parent directory of  a  non-directory  object  correlated  to  the
              event.   If  the  value  of  info_type  field  is  FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID_NAME,  the
              file_handle  identifies  the  same  directory  object  that  would  be  reported  with
              FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID  and  the file handle is followed by a null terminated string
              that identifies the name of a directory entry in that directory, or  '.'  to  identify
              the directory object itself.

       The following macros are provided to iterate over a buffer containing fanotify event metadata
       returned by a read(2) from an fanotify file descriptor:

       FAN_EVENT_OK(meta, len)
              This macro checks the remaining length len of the buffer meta against  the  length  of
              the  metadata structure and the event_len field of the first metadata structure in the
              buffer.

       FAN_EVENT_NEXT(meta, len)
              This macro uses the length indicated in the event_len field of the metadata  structure
              pointed  to  by meta to calculate the address of the next metadata structure that fol‐
              lows meta.  len is the number of bytes of metadata that currently remain in  the  buf‐
              fer.   The  macro  returns a pointer to the next metadata structure that follows meta,
              and reduces len by the number of bytes in the metadata structure that has been skipped
              over (i.e., it subtracts meta->event_len from len).

       In addition, there is:

       FAN_EVENT_METADATA_LEN
              This macro returns the size (in bytes) of the structure fanotify_event_metadata.  This
              is the minimum size (and currently the only size) of any event metadata.

   Monitoring an fanotify file descriptor for events
       When an fanotify event occurs, the fanotify file descriptor indicates as readable when passed
       to epoll(7), poll(2), or select(2).

   Dealing with permission events
       For permission events, the application must write(2) a structure of the following form to the
       fanotify file descriptor:

           struct fanotify_response {
               __s32 fd;
               __u32 response;
           };

       The fields of this structure are as follows:

       fd     This is the file descriptor from the structure fanotify_event_metadata.

       response
              This field indicates whether or not the permission is to be granted.  Its  value  must
              be  either  FAN_ALLOW  to allow the file operation or FAN_DENY to deny the file opera‐
              tion.

       If access is denied, the requesting application call will receive an EPERM error.

   Closing the fanotify file descriptor
       When all file descriptors referring to the fanotify notification group are closed,  the  fan‐
       otify  group is released and its resources are freed for reuse by the kernel.  Upon close(2),
       outstanding permission events will be set to allowed.

   /proc/[pid]/fdinfo
       The file /proc/[pid]/fdinfo/[fd] contains information about fanotify marks for file  descrip‐
       tor fd of process pid.  See proc(5) for details.

ERRORS
       In addition to the usual errors for read(2), the following errors can occur when reading from
       the fanotify file descriptor:

       EINVAL The buffer is too small to hold the event.

       EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open files has been reached.  See the  descrip‐
              tion of RLIMIT_NOFILE in getrlimit(2).

       ENFILE The  system-wide  limit  on  the  total  number  of  open files has been reached.  See
              /proc/sys/fs/file-max in proc(5).

       ETXTBSY
              This error is returned  by  read(2)  if  O_RDWR  or  O_WRONLY  was  specified  in  the
              event_f_flags argument when calling fanotify_init(2) and an event occurred for a moni‐
              tored file that is currently being executed.

       In addition to the usual errors for write(2), the following errors can occur when writing  to
       the fanotify file descriptor:

       EINVAL Fanotify  access  permissions are not enabled in the kernel configuration or the value
              of response in the response structure is not valid.

       ENOENT The file descriptor fd in the response structure is not valid.  This may occur when  a
              response for the permission event has already been written.

VERSIONS
       The  fanotify API was introduced in version 2.6.36 of the Linux kernel and enabled in version
       2.6.37.  Fdinfo support was added in version 3.8.

CONFORMING TO
       The fanotify API is Linux-specific.

NOTES
       The fanotify API is available only if the kernel was built with the CONFIG_FANOTIFY  configu‐
       ration  option  enabled.   In addition, fanotify permission handling is available only if the
       CONFIG_FANOTIFY_ACCESS_PERMISSIONS configuration option is enabled.

   Limitations and caveats
       Fanotify reports only events that a user-space program triggers through the  filesystem  API.
       As a result, it does not catch remote events that occur on network filesystems.

       The  fanotify  API  does not report file accesses and modifications that may occur because of
       mmap(2), msync(2), and munmap(2).

       Events for directories are created only if the directory itself is opened, read, and  closed.
       Adding,  removing,  or changing children of a marked directory does not create events for the
       monitored directory itself.

       Fanotify monitoring of directories is not recursive: to monitor subdirectories under a direc‐
       tory,  additional marks must be created.  The FAN_CREATE event can be used for detecting when
       a subdirectory has been created under a marked directory.  An additional mark  must  then  be
       set  on  the  newly  created subdirectory.  This approach is racy, because it can lose events
       that occurred inside the newly created subdirectory, before a mark is added on that subdirec‐
       tory.   Monitoring  mounts offers the capability to monitor a whole directory tree in a race-
       free manner.  Monitoring filesystems offers the capability to monitor changes made  from  any
       mount of a filesystem instance in a race-free manner.

       The event queue can overflow.  In this case, events are lost.

BUGS
       Before Linux 3.19, fallocate(2) did not generate fanotify events.  Since Linux 3.19, calls to
       fallocate(2) generate FAN_MODIFY events.

       As of Linux 3.17, the following bugs exist:

       *  On Linux, a filesystem object may be accessible through multiple  paths,  for  example,  a
          part  of  a  filesystem  may be remounted using the --bind option of mount(8).  A listener
          that marked a mount will be notified only of events that were triggered for  a  filesystem
          object using the same mount.  Any other event will pass unnoticed.

       *  When  an  event is generated, no check is made to see whether the user ID of the receiving
          process has authorization to read or write the file before passing a file  descriptor  for
          that  file.  This poses a security risk, when the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability is set for pro‐
          grams executed by unprivileged users.

       *  If a call to read(2) processes multiple events from the fanotify queue and  an  error  oc‐
          curs,  the  return value will be the total length of the events successfully copied to the
          user-space buffer before the error occurred.  The return value will not be -1,  and  errno
          will not be set.  Thus, the reading application has no way to detect the error.

EXAMPLES
       The two example programs below demonstrate the usage of the fanotify API.

   Example program: fanotify_example.c
       The  first  program  is  an  example of fanotify being used with its event object information
       passed in the form of a file descriptor.  The program marks the mount point passed as a  com‐
       mand-line  argument  and  waits for events of type FAN_OPEN_PERM and FAN_CLOSE_WRITE.  When a
       permission event occurs, a FAN_ALLOW response is given.

       The following shell session shows an example of running this program.  This session  involved
       editing  the  file  /home/user/temp/notes.  Before the file was opened, a FAN_OPEN_PERM event
       occurred.  After the file was closed, a FAN_CLOSE_WRITE event  occurred.   Execution  of  the
       program ends when the user presses the ENTER key.

           # ./fanotify_example /home
           Press enter key to terminate.
           Listening for events.
           FAN_OPEN_PERM: File /home/user/temp/notes
           FAN_CLOSE_WRITE: File /home/user/temp/notes

           Listening for events stopped.

   Program source: fanotify_example.c

       #define _GNU_SOURCE     /* Needed to get O_LARGEFILE definition */
       #include <errno.h>
       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <limits.h>
       #include <poll.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <sys/fanotify.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       /* Read all available fanotify events from the file descriptor 'fd' */

       static void
       handle_events(int fd)
       {
           const struct fanotify_event_metadata *metadata;
           struct fanotify_event_metadata buf[200];
           ssize_t len;
           char path[PATH_MAX];
           ssize_t path_len;
           char procfd_path[PATH_MAX];
           struct fanotify_response response;

           /* Loop while events can be read from fanotify file descriptor */

           for (;;) {

               /* Read some events */

               len = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf));
               if (len == -1 && errno != EAGAIN) {
                   perror("read");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }

               /* Check if end of available data reached */

               if (len <= 0)
                   break;

               /* Point to the first event in the buffer */

               metadata = buf;

               /* Loop over all events in the buffer */

               while (FAN_EVENT_OK(metadata, len)) {

                   /* Check that run-time and compile-time structures match */

                   if (metadata->vers != FANOTIFY_METADATA_VERSION) {
                       fprintf(stderr,
                               "Mismatch of fanotify metadata version.\n");
                       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                   }

                   /* metadata->fd contains either FAN_NOFD, indicating a
                      queue overflow, or a file descriptor (a nonnegative
                      integer). Here, we simply ignore queue overflow. */

                   if (metadata->fd >= 0) {

                       /* Handle open permission event */

                       if (metadata->mask & FAN_OPEN_PERM) {
                           printf("FAN_OPEN_PERM: ");

                           /* Allow file to be opened */

                           response.fd = metadata->fd;
                           response.response = FAN_ALLOW;
                           write(fd, &response, sizeof(response));
                       }

                       /* Handle closing of writable file event */

                       if (metadata->mask & FAN_CLOSE_WRITE)
                           printf("FAN_CLOSE_WRITE: ");

                       /* Retrieve and print pathname of the accessed file */

                       snprintf(procfd_path, sizeof(procfd_path),
                                "/proc/self/fd/%d", metadata->fd);
                       path_len = readlink(procfd_path, path,
                                           sizeof(path) - 1);
                       if (path_len == -1) {
                           perror("readlink");
                           exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                       }

                       path[path_len] = '\0';
                       printf("File %s\n", path);

                       /* Close the file descriptor of the event */

                       close(metadata->fd);
                   }

                   /* Advance to next event */

                   metadata = FAN_EVENT_NEXT(metadata, len);
               }
           }
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           char buf;
           int fd, poll_num;
           nfds_t nfds;
           struct pollfd fds[2];

           /* Check mount point is supplied */

           if (argc != 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s MOUNT\n", argv[0]);
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           printf("Press enter key to terminate.\n");

           /* Create the file descriptor for accessing the fanotify API */

           fd = fanotify_init(FAN_CLOEXEC | FAN_CLASS_CONTENT | FAN_NONBLOCK,
                              O_RDONLY | O_LARGEFILE);
           if (fd == -1) {
               perror("fanotify_init");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Mark the mount for:
              - permission events before opening files
              - notification events after closing a write-enabled
                file descriptor */

           if (fanotify_mark(fd, FAN_MARK_ADD | FAN_MARK_MOUNT,
                             FAN_OPEN_PERM | FAN_CLOSE_WRITE, AT_FDCWD,
                             argv[1]) == -1) {
               perror("fanotify_mark");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Prepare for polling */

           nfds = 2;

           /* Console input */

           fds[0].fd = STDIN_FILENO;
           fds[0].events = POLLIN;

           /* Fanotify input */

           fds[1].fd = fd;
           fds[1].events = POLLIN;

           /* This is the loop to wait for incoming events */

           printf("Listening for events.\n");

           while (1) {
               poll_num = poll(fds, nfds, -1);
               if (poll_num == -1) {
                   if (errno == EINTR)     /* Interrupted by a signal */
                       continue;           /* Restart poll() */

                   perror("poll");         /* Unexpected error */
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }

               if (poll_num > 0) {
                   if (fds[0].revents & POLLIN) {

                       /* Console input is available: empty stdin and quit */

                       while (read(STDIN_FILENO, &buf, 1) > 0 && buf != '\n')
                           continue;
                       break;
                   }

                   if (fds[1].revents & POLLIN) {

                       /* Fanotify events are available */

                       handle_events(fd);
                   }
               }
           }

           printf("Listening for events stopped.\n");
           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

   Example program: fanotify_fid.c
       The  second program is an example of fanotify being used with a group that identifies objects
       by file handles.  The program marks the filesystem object that is passed  as  a  command-line
       argument  and waits until an event of type FAN_CREATE has occurred.  The event mask indicates
       which type of filesystem object—either a file or a directory—was created.   Once  all  events
       have been read from the buffer and processed accordingly, the program simply terminates.

       The  following  shell sessions show two different invocations of this program, with different
       actions performed on a watched object.

       The first session shows a mark being placed on /home/user.  This is followed by the  creation
       of  a regular file, /home/user/testfile.txt.  This results in a FAN_CREATE event being gener‐
       ated and reported against the file's parent watched directory object  and  with  the  created
       file  name.  Program execution ends once all events captured within the buffer have been pro‐
       cessed.

           # ./fanotify_fid /home/user
           Listening for events.
           FAN_CREATE (file created):
                   Directory /home/user has been modified.
                   Entry 'testfile.txt' is not a subdirectory.
           All events processed successfully. Program exiting.

           $ touch /home/user/testfile.txt              # In another terminal

       The second session shows a mark being placed on /home/user.  This is followed by the creation
       of a directory, /home/user/testdir.  This specific action results in a FAN_CREATE event being
       generated and is reported with the FAN_ONDIR flag set and with the created directory name.

           # ./fanotify_fid /home/user
           Listening for events.
           FAN_CREATE | FAN_ONDIR (subdirectory created):
                   Directory /home/user has been modified.
                   Entry 'testdir' is a subdirectory.
           All events processed successfully. Program exiting.

           $ mkdir -p /home/user/testdir          # In another terminal

   Program source: fanotify_fid.c

       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <errno.h>
       #include <fcntl.h>
       #include <limits.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/stat.h>
       #include <sys/fanotify.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       #define BUF_SIZE 256

       int
       main(int argc, char **argv)
       {
           int fd, ret, event_fd, mount_fd;
           ssize_t len, path_len;
           char path[PATH_MAX];
           char procfd_path[PATH_MAX];
           char events_buf[BUF_SIZE];
           struct file_handle *file_handle;
           struct fanotify_event_metadata *metadata;
           struct fanotify_event_info_fid *fid;
           const char *file_name;
           struct stat sb;

           if (argc != 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Invalid number of command line arguments.\n");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           mount_fd = open(argv[1], O_DIRECTORY | O_RDONLY);
           if (mount_fd == -1) {
               perror(argv[1]);
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }


           /* Create an fanotify file descriptor with FAN_REPORT_DFID_NAME as
              a flag so that program can receive fid events with directory
              entry name. */

           fd = fanotify_init(FAN_CLASS_NOTIF | FAN_REPORT_DFID_NAME, 0);
           if (fd == -1) {
               perror("fanotify_init");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Place a mark on the filesystem object supplied in argv[1]. */

           ret = fanotify_mark(fd, FAN_MARK_ADD | FAN_MARK_ONLYDIR,
                               FAN_CREATE | FAN_ONDIR,
                               AT_FDCWD, argv[1]);
           if (ret == -1) {
               perror("fanotify_mark");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           printf("Listening for events.\n");

           /* Read events from the event queue into a buffer */

           len = read(fd, events_buf, sizeof(events_buf));
           if (len == -1 && errno != EAGAIN) {
               perror("read");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Process all events within the buffer */

           for (metadata = (struct fanotify_event_metadata *) events_buf;
                   FAN_EVENT_OK(metadata, len);
                   metadata = FAN_EVENT_NEXT(metadata, len)) {
               fid = (struct fanotify_event_info_fid *) (metadata + 1);
               file_handle = (struct file_handle *) fid->handle;

               /* Ensure that the event info is of the correct type */

               if (fid->hdr.info_type == FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_FID ||
                   fid->hdr.info_type == FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID) {
                   file_name = NULL;
               } else if (fid->hdr.info_type == FAN_EVENT_INFO_TYPE_DFID_NAME) {
                   file_name = file_handle->f_handle +
                               file_handle->handle_bytes;
               } else {
                   fprintf(stderr, "Received unexpected event info type.\n");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }

               if (metadata->mask == FAN_CREATE)
                   printf("FAN_CREATE (file created):\n");

               if (metadata->mask == (FAN_CREATE | FAN_ONDIR))
                   printf("FAN_CREATE | FAN_ONDIR (subdirectory created):\n");

            /* metadata->fd is set to FAN_NOFD when the group identifies
               objects by file handles.  To obtain a file descriptor for
               the file object corresponding to an event you can use the
               struct file_handle that's provided within the
               fanotify_event_info_fid in conjunction with the
               open_by_handle_at(2) system call.  A check for ESTALE is
               done to accommodate for the situation where the file handle
               for the object was deleted prior to this system call. */

               event_fd = open_by_handle_at(mount_fd, file_handle, O_RDONLY);
               if (event_fd == -1) {
                   if (errno == ESTALE) {
                       printf("File handle is no longer valid. "
                               "File has been deleted\n");
                       continue;
                   } else {
                       perror("open_by_handle_at");
                       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                   }
               }

               snprintf(procfd_path, sizeof(procfd_path), "/proc/self/fd/%d",
                       event_fd);

               /* Retrieve and print the path of the modified dentry */

               path_len = readlink(procfd_path, path, sizeof(path) - 1);
               if (path_len == -1) {
                   perror("readlink");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }

               path[path_len] = '\0';
               printf("\tDirectory '%s' has been modified.\n", path);

               if (file_name) {
                   ret = fstatat(event_fd, file_name, &sb, 0);
                   if (ret == -1) {
                       if (errno != ENOENT) {
                           perror("fstatat");
                           exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
                       }
                       printf("\tEntry '%s' does not exist.\n", file_name);
                   } else if ((sb.st_mode & S_IFMT) == S_IFDIR) {
                       printf("\tEntry '%s' is a subdirectory.\n", file_name);
                   } else {
                       printf("\tEntry '%s' is not a subdirectory.\n",
                               file_name);
                   }
               }

               /* Close associated file descriptor for this event */

               close(event_fd);
           }

           printf("All events processed successfully. Program exiting.\n");
           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       fanotify_init(2), fanotify_mark(2), inotify(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.10 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                                        2020-11-01                                  FANOTIFY(7)

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