---
name: "acl_delete_perm"
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_delete_perm"
---

# acl\_delete\_perm(3)

delete a permission from an ACL permission set

## NAME

**acl\_delete\_perm** – delete a permission from an ACL permission set

## LIBRARY

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

## SYNOPSIS

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

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

*int*\

**acl\_delete\_perm**(*acl\_permset\_t permset\_d*, *acl\_perm\_t perm*);

## DESCRIPTION

The **acl\_delete\_perm**() function deletes the permission contained in the argument *perm* (one of ACL\_READ, ACL\_WRITE, ACL\_EXECUTE) from the permission set referred to by the argument *permset\_d*. An attempt to delete a permission that is not contained in the permission set is not considered an error.

Any existing descriptors that refer to *permset\_d* continue to refer to that permission set.

## RETURN VALUE

The **acl\_delete\_perm()** 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\_delete\_perm**() function returns -1 and sets *errno* to the corresponding value:

- \[EINVAL\]

  The argument *permset\_d* is not a valid descriptor for a permission set within an ACL entry.

  The argument *perm* does not contain a valid *acl\_perm\_t* value.

## STANDARDS

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

In the Linux implementation, *perm* is a bitwise set of permissions that **acl\_delete\_perm**() will all remove at once.  This use is not portable.

## SEE ALSO

[acl\_add\_perm(3)](/acl_add_perm/3.md), [acl\_clear\_perms(3)](/acl_clear_perms/3.md), [acl\_get\_perm(3)](/acl_get_perm/3.md), [acl\_get\_permset(3)](/acl_get_permset/3.md), [acl\_set\_permset(3)](/acl_set_permset/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⟩.