---
name: "fbtab"
section: "5"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["freebsd", "openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fbtab"
---

# fbtab(5)

change device protection upon login

## NAME

**fbtab** – change device protection upon login

## DESCRIPTION

The **fbtab** file contains lines which specify how the permissions and ownership of various system files should be changed based on the user's login device name.

Comments start with a ‘#’ and extend to the end of the line. Blank lines or lines with only a comment are ignored.

All other lines consist of three fields delimited by whitespace.

- Login Device

  The device you have logged in on (e.g., “/dev/ttyv0”).

- File Permission

  An octal permission number (0600), as used by [chmod(2)](/chmod/2.md).

- Other devices

  The final field is a colon (‘:’) delimited list of device paths (e.g., “/dev/console:/dev/fd0a:/dev/wskbd\*”). Device paths may include shell-style globbing patterns (see [glob(7)](/glob/7.md)), potentially matching multiple devices.

The **fbtab** file is used by [login(1)](/login/1.md) to [chown(2)](/chown/2.md) the specified files to the user who has performed a login. Additionally, [chmod(2)](/chmod/2.md) is used to set the devices to the specified permission. When a user logs out, [init(8)](/init/8.md) is responsible for performing the inverse operation, which results in the files once again belonging to root.

## FILES

- */etc/fbtab*

  ## SEE ALSO

[login(1)](/login/1.md), login\_fbtab(3), [glob(7)](/glob/7.md), [init(8)](/init/8.md)

## AUTHORS

Guido van Rooij