OPEN(2)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 OPEN(2)

NAME
       open, openat - open and possibly create a file or directory

SYNOPSIS
       #include <fcntl.h>

       int open(const char *pathname, int flags, ... /* mode_t mode */);
       int openat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, int flags, ...);

DESCRIPTION
       The  open()  system  call opens the file indicated by pathname and
       returns a file descriptor that refers to that open file.  The file
       descriptor  returned  by  a successful call will be the lowest‐
       numbered file descriptor not currently open for the process.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, open(), openat(), and creat() return the new  file
       descriptor (a  nonnegative  integer).   On  error,  -1  is returned,
       and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EACCES The  requested  access  to  the  file  is  not  allowed, or
              search  permission  is  denied  for  one  of  the  directories
              in the path prefix of pathname, or the file did not exist yet
              and write access to the parent directory is not allowed.

SEE ALSO
       close(2), creat(2), fcntl(2), link(2), mkdir(2), mknod(2), mount(2),
       openat(2), read(2), rename(2), stat(2), unlink(2), fopen(3)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project.