---
name: "acl_create_entry"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "acl"
version: "2.4.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/acl_create_entry"
---

# acl\_create\_entry(3)

create a new ACL entry

## NAME

**acl\_create\_entry** – create a new ACL entry

## LIBRARY

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

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<sys/types.h\>**

**#include \<sys/acl.h\>**

*int*\

**acl\_create\_entry**(*acl\_t \*acl\_p*, *acl\_entry\_t \*entry\_p*);

## DESCRIPTION

The **acl\_create\_entry**() function creates a new ACL entry in the ACL pointed to by the contents of the pointer argument *acl\_p*. On success, the function returns a descriptor for the new ACL entry via *entry\_p*.

This function may cause memory to be allocated.  The caller should free any releasable memory, when the new ACL is no longer required, by calling [acl\_free(3)](/acl_free/3.md) with *(void\*)\*acl\_p* as an argument. If the ACL working storage cannot be increased in the current location, then the working storage for the ACL pointed to by *acl\_p* may be relocated and the previous working storage is released. A pointer to the new working storage is returned via *acl\_p*.

The components of the new ACL entry are initialized in the following ways: the ACL tag type component contains ACL\_UNDEFINED\_TAG, the qualifier component contains ACL\_UNDEFINED\_ID, and the set of permissions has no permissions enabled. Any existing ACL entry descriptors that refer to entries in the ACL continue to refer to those entries.

## RETURN VALUE

The **acl\_create\_entry()** function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

## ERRORS

If any of the following conditions occur, the **acl\_create\_entry**() function returns -1 and sets *errno* to the corresponding value:

- \[EINVAL\]

  The argument *acl\_p* is not a valid pointer to an ACL.

- \[ENOMEM\]

  The ACL working storage requires more memory than is allowed by the hardware or system-imposed memory management constraints.

## STANDARDS

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

## SEE ALSO

[acl\_init(3)](/acl_init/3.md), [acl\_delete\_entry(3)](/acl_delete_entry/3.md), [acl\_free(3)](/acl_free/3.md), [acl\_create\_entry(3)](/acl_create_entry/3.md), [acl(5)](/acl/5.md)

## AUTHOR

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⟩.