xref: /freebsd/share/man/man7/sticky.7 (revision 6137b5f7b8c183ee8806d79b3f1d8e5e3ddb3df3)
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28.Dd June 5, 1993
29.Dt STICKY 7
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm sticky
33.Nd sticky text and append-only directories
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35A special file mode, called the
36.Em sticky bit
37(mode S_ISTXT),
38is used to indicate special treatment
39for directories.
40It is ignored for regular files.
41See
42.Xr chmod 2
43or
44the file
45.In sys/stat.h
46for an explanation of file modes.
47.Sh STICKY DIRECTORIES
48A directory whose `sticky bit' is set
49becomes an append-only directory, or, more accurately,
50a directory in which the deletion of files is restricted.
51A file in a sticky directory may only be removed or renamed
52by a user if the user has write permission for the directory and
53the user is the owner of the file, the owner of the directory,
54or the super-user.
55This feature is usefully applied to directories such as
56.Pa /tmp
57which must be publicly writable but
58should deny users the license to arbitrarily
59delete or rename each others' files.
60.Pp
61Any user may create a sticky directory.
62See
63.Xr chmod 1
64for details about modifying file modes.
65.Sh HISTORY
66A
67.Nm
68command appeared in
69.At 32v .
70.Sh BUGS
71Neither
72.Xr open 2
73nor
74.Xr mkdir 2
75will create a file with the sticky bit set.
76