.TH "matchpathcon" "3" "21 November 2009" "sds@tycho.nsa.gov" "SELinux API documentation"
.SH "NAME"
matchpathcon, matchpathcon_index \- get the default SELinux security context for the specified path from the file contexts configuration
.
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.B #include <selinux/selinux.h>
.sp
.BI "int matchpathcon_init(const char *" path ");"
.sp
.BI "int matchpathcon_init_prefix(const char *" path ", const char *" prefix ");"
.sp
.BI "int matchpathcon_fini(void);"
.sp
.BI "int matchpathcon(const char *" path ", mode_t " mode ", char **" con ");
.sp
.BI "int matchpathcon_index(const char *" name ", mode_t " mode ", char **" con ");"
.
.SH "DESCRIPTION"

This family of functions is deprecated.  For new code, please use
.BR selabel_open (3)
with the
.B SELABEL_CTX_FILE
backend in place of
.BR matchpathcon_init (),
use
.BR selabel_close (3)
in place of
.BR matchpathcon_fini (),
and use
.BR selabel_lookup (3)
in place of
.BR matchpathcon ().

The remaining description below is for the legacy interface.

.BR matchpathcon_init ()
loads the file contexts configuration specified by
.I path
into memory for use by subsequent 
.BR matchpathcon ()
calls.  If
.I path
is NULL, then the active file contexts configuration is loaded by default,
i.e. the path returned by 
.BR selinux_file_context_path (3).
Unless the 
.B MATCHPATHCON_BASEONLY 
flag has been set via 
.BR \%set_matchpathcon_flags (3),
files with the same path prefix but a 
.B \%.homedirs
and
.B .local
suffix are also looked up and loaded if present.  These files provide
dynamically generated entries for user home directories and for local
customizations.

.BR matchpathcon_init_prefix ()
is the same as
.BR matchpathcon_init ()
but only loads entries with regular expressions whose first pathname
component is a prefix of
.I \%prefix
, e.g. pass "/dev" if you only intend to call
.BR matchpathcon ()
with pathnames beginning with /dev.
However, this optimization is no longer necessary due to the use of
.I file_contexts.bin
files with precompiled regular expressions, so use of this interface
is deprecated.

.BR matchpathcon_fini ()
frees the memory allocated by a prior call to
.BR matchpathcon_init. ()
This function can be used to free and reset the internal state between multiple 
.BR matchpathcon_init ()
calls, or to free memory when finished using 
.BR matchpathcon ().

.BR matchpathcon ()
matches the specified
.I pathname,
after transformation via
.BR realpath (3)
excepting any final symbolic link component if S_IFLNK was
specified as the
.I mode,
and
.I mode
against the
.I file contexts
configuration and sets the security context 
.I con 
to refer to the
resulting context. The caller must free the returned security context 
.I con
using
.BR freecon (3)
when finished using it.
.I mode
can be 0 to disable mode matching, but
should be provided whenever possible, as it may affect the matching.
Only the file format bits (i.e. the file type) of the 
.I mode 
are used.
If 
.BR matchpathcon_init ()
has not already been called, then this function will call it upon
its first invocation with a NULL
.I path,
defaulting to the active file contexts configuration.

.BR matchpathcon_index ()
is the same as
.BR matchpathcon ()
but returns a specification index that can later be used in a
.BR matchpathcon_filespec_add (3)
call.
.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Returns zero on success or \-1 otherwise.
.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.ad l
.nh
.BR selinux "(8), " set_matchpathcon_flags "(3), " set_matchpathcon_invalidcon "(3), " set_matchpathcon_printf "(3), " matchpathcon_filespec_add "(3), " matchpathcon_checkmatches "(3), " freecon "(3), " setfilecon "(3), " setfscreatecon "(3)"