---
name: "utimes"
section: "2"
platform: "linux"
package: "man-pages"
version: "6.19-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/utime/2"
---

# utimes(2)

change file last access and modification times

Part of [utime(2)](/utime/2.md).

## NAME

utime, utimes - change file last access and modification times

## LIBRARY

Standard C library (*libc*, *-lc*)

## SYNOPSIS

```
#include <utime.h>
```

**int utime(const char \****path***,**           **const struct utimbuf \*\_Nullable** *times***);**

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

**int utimes(const char \****path***,**           **const struct timeval** *times***\[\_Nullable 2\]);**

## DESCRIPTION

**Note:** modern applications may prefer to use the interfaces described in [**utimensat**(2)](/utimensat/2.md).

The **utime**() system call changes the access and modification times of the inode specified by *path* to the *actime* and *modtime* fields of *times* respectively. The status change time (ctime) will be set to the current time, even if the other time stamps don't actually change.

If *times* is NULL, then the access and modification times of the file are set to the current time.

Changing timestamps is permitted when: either the process has appropriate privileges, or the effective user ID equals the user ID of the file, or *times* is NULL and the process has write permission for the file.

The *utimbuf* structure is:

```
struct utimbuf {
    time_t actime;       /* access time */
    time_t modtime;      /* modification time */
};
```

The **utime**() system call allows specification of timestamps with a resolution of 1 second.

The **utimes**() system call is similar, but the *times* argument refers to an array rather than a structure. The elements of this array are *timeval* structures, which allow a precision of 1 microsecond for specifying timestamps. The *timeval* structure is:

```
struct timeval {
    long tv_sec;        /* seconds */
    long tv_usec;       /* microseconds */
};
```

*times\[0\]* specifies the new access time, and *times\[1\]* specifies the new modification time. If *times* is NULL, then analogously to **utime**(), the access and modification times of the file are set to the current time.

## RETURN VALUE

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and *errno* is set to indicate the error.

## ERRORS

- **EACCES**

  Search permission is denied for one of the directories in the path prefix of *path* (see also [**path\_resolution**(7)](/path_resolution/7.md)).

- **EACCES**

  *times* is NULL, the caller's effective user ID does not match the owner of the file, the caller does not have write access to the file, and the caller is not privileged (Linux: does not have either the **CAP\_DAC\_OVERRIDE** or the **CAP\_FOWNER** capability).

- **EFAULT**

  *path* points to an invalid address.

- **ENOENT**

  *path* does not exist.

- **EPERM**

  *times* is not NULL, the caller's effective UID does not match the owner of the file, and the caller is not privileged (Linux: does not have the **CAP\_FOWNER** capability).

- **EROFS**

  *path* resides on a read-only filesystem.

## STANDARDS

- **utime**()

  None.

- **utimes**()

  POSIX.1-2024.

## HISTORY

- **utime**()

  SVr4, POSIX.1-2001. Obsoleted in POSIX.1-2008. Removed in POSIX.1-2024.

- **utimes**()

  4\.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

## NOTES

Linux does not allow changing the timestamps on an immutable file, or setting the timestamps to something other than the current time on an append-only file.

## SEE ALSO

[**chattr**(1)](/chattr/1.md), [**touch**(1)](/touch/1.md), [**futimesat**(2)](/futimesat/2.md), [**stat**(2)](/stat/2.md), [**utimensat**(2)](/utimensat/2.md), [**futimens**(3)](/futimens/3.md), [**futimes**(3)](/futimes/3.md), [**inode**(7)](/inode/7.md)