---
name: "utimes"
section: "2"
platform: "macos"
package: "xnu"
version: "12377.121.6"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/utimes"
---

# utimes(2)

set file access and modification times

## NAME

**futimes**, **utimes** – set file access and modification times

## LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

## SYNOPSIS

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

*int*\

**futimes**(*int fildes*, *const struct timeval times\[2\]*);

*int*\

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

## DESCRIPTION

The access and modification times of the file named by *path* or referenced by *fildes* are changed as specified by the argument *times*.

If *times* is NULL, the access and modification times are set to the current time. The caller must be the owner of the file, have permission to write the file, or be the super-user.

If *times* is non-NULL, it is assumed to point to an array of two timeval structures. The access time is set to the value of the first element, and the modification time is set to the value of the second element. The caller must be the owner of the file or be the super-user.

In either case, the inode-change-time of the file is set to the current time.

## NOTE

In case of a symbolic link  **utimes**() function will set file access and modification times to the file the link  references. The  [lutimes(3)](/lutimes/3.md) function will set the access and modification times to the symbolic link  file.

## RETURN VALUES

The **futimes()** 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

The **utimes**() system call will fail if:

- \[EACCES\]

  Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix; or the *times* argument is NULL and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, and is not the super-user, and write access is denied.

- \[EFAULT\]

  *path* or *times* points outside the process's allocated address space.

- \[EIO\]

  An I/O error occurs while reading or writing the affected inode.

- \[ELOOP\]

  Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.

- \[ENAMETOOLONG\]

  A component of a pathname exceeds NAME\_MAX characters, or an entire path name exceeded PATH\_MAX characters.

- \[ENOENT\]

  The named file does not exist.

- \[ENOTDIR\]

  A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

- \[EPERM\]

  The *times* argument is not NULL and the calling process's effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and is not the super-user.

- \[EROFS\]

  The file system containing the file is mounted read-only.

The **futimes**() system call will fail if:

- \[EBADF\]

  *fildes* does not refer to a valid descriptor.

All of the functions will fail if:

- \[EACCES\]

  The *times* argument is NULL and the effective user ID of the process does not match the owner of the file, and is not the super-user, and write access is denied.

- \[EFAULT\]

  *times* points outside the process's allocated address space.

- \[EIO\]

  An I/O error occurred while reading or writing the affected inode.

- \[EPERM\]

  The *times* argument is not NULL and the calling process's effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and is not the super-user.

- \[EROFS\]

  The file system containing the file is mounted read-only.

## SEE ALSO

[stat(2)](/stat/2.md), [utime(3)](/utime/3.md), [lutimes(3)](/lutimes/3.md)

## HISTORY

The **utimes**() function call appeared in 4.2BSD. The **futimes**() function call first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.