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

# acl\_delete\_def\_file(3)

delete a default ACL by filename

## NAME

**acl\_delete\_def\_file**, **acl\_delete\_def\_file\_at** – delete a default ACL by filename

## LIBRARY

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

## SYNOPSIS

**#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*);

## DESCRIPTION

The **acl\_delete\_def\_file**() 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.

### Fn acl\_delete\_def\_file\_at

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 **acl\_delete\_def\_file**()).

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 **acl\_delete\_def\_file**()).

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:

- AT\_EMPTY\_PATH

  If *path\_p* is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by *dirfd* (which may have been obtained using the [open(2)](/open/2.md) O\_PATH flag). In this case, *dirfd* can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.

- AT\_SYMLINK\_NOFOLLOW

  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.

## RETURN VALUE

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.

## ERRORS

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:

- \[EBADF\]

  The argument *path\_p* is relative but the argument *dirfd* is neither AT\_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.

- \[EINVAL\]

  The file referred to by *path\_p* is not a directory.

  An invalid flag was specified in the *at\_flags* argument.

- \[ENOTDIR\]

  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.

- \[ENOTSUP\]

  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.

- \[EPERM\]

  The process does not have appropriate privilege to perform the operation to delete the default ACL.

- \[EROFS\]

  This function requires modification of a file system which is currently read-only.

## STANDARDS

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

Function **acl\_delete\_def\_file\_at**() is a Linux specific extension.

## SEE ALSO

[acl\_get\_file(3)](/acl_get_file/3.md), [acl\_set\_file(3)](/acl_set_file/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⟩.