---
name: "archive_entry"
section: "3"
platform: "macos"
package: "libarchive"
version: "167.120.3"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/archive_entry"
---

# archive\_entry(3)

functions for managing archive entry descriptions

## NAME

**archive\_entry\_clear**, **archive\_entry\_clone**, **archive\_entry\_free**, **archive\_entry\_new** - functions for managing archive entry descriptions

## LIBRARY

Streaming Archive Library (libarchive, -larchive)

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<archive\_entry.h\>**\
 *struct archive\_entry \**\
 **archive\_entry\_clear**(*struct archive\_entry \**);\
 *struct archive\_entry \**\
 **archive\_entry\_clone**(*struct archive\_entry \**);\
 *void*\
 **archive\_entry\_free**(*struct archive\_entry \**);\
 *struct archive\_entry \**\
 **archive\_entry\_new**(*void*);

## DESCRIPTION

These functions create and manipulate data objects that represent entries within an archive. You can think of a Tn struct archive\_entry as a heavy-duty version of Tn struct stat: it includes everything from Tn struct stat plus associated pathname, textual group and user names, etc. These objects are used by [**libarchive**(3)](/libarchive/3.md) to represent the metadata associated with a particular entry in an archive.

### Create and Destroy

There are functions to allocate, destroy, clear, and copy *archive\_entry* objects:

- **archive\_entry\_clear**()

  Erases the object, resetting all internal fields to the same state as a newly-created object. This is provided to allow you to quickly recycle objects without thrashing the heap.

- **archive\_entry\_clone**()

  A deep copy operation; all text fields are duplicated.

- **archive\_entry\_free**()

  Releases the Tn struct archive\_entry object.

- **archive\_entry\_new**()

  Allocate and return a blank Tn struct archive\_entry object.

### Function groups

Due to high number of functions, the accessor functions can be found in man pages grouped by the purpose.

- [**archive\_entry\_acl**(3)](/archive_entry_acl/3.md)

  Access Control List manipulation

- [**archive\_entry\_paths**(3)](/archive_entry_paths/3.md)

  Path name manipulation

- [**archive\_entry\_perms**(3)](/archive_entry_perms/3.md)

  User, group and mode manipulation

- [**archive\_entry\_stat**(3)](/archive_entry_stat/3.md)

  Functions not in the other groups and copying to/from Vt struct stat.

- [**archive\_entry\_time**(3)](/archive_entry_time/3.md)

  Time field manipulation

Most of the functions set or read entries in an object. Such functions have one of the following forms:

- **archive\_entry\_set\_XXXX**()

  Stores the provided data in the object. In particular, for strings, the pointer is stored, not the referenced string.

- **archive\_entry\_copy\_XXXX**()

  As above, except that the referenced data is copied into the object.

- **archive\_entry\_XXXX**()

  Returns the specified data. In the case of strings, a const-qualified pointer to the string is returned.

String data can be set or accessed as wide character strings or normal *char* strings. The functions that use wide character strings are suffixed with **\_w**. Note that these are different representations of the same data: For example, if you store a narrow string and read the corresponding wide string, the object will transparently convert formats using the current locale. Similarly, if you store a wide string and then store a narrow string for the same data, the previously-set wide string will be discarded in favor of the new data.

## SEE ALSO

[**archive\_entry\_acl**(3)](/archive_entry_acl/3.md), [**archive\_entry\_paths**(3)](/archive_entry_paths/3.md), [**archive\_entry\_perms**(3)](/archive_entry_perms/3.md), [**archive\_entry\_time**(3)](/archive_entry_time/3.md), [**libarchive**(3)](/libarchive/3.md)

## HISTORY

The **libarchive** library first appeared in FreeBSD 5.3.

## AUTHORS

\-nosplit The **libarchive** library was written by Tim Kientzle \<kientzle@acm.org.\>