chaudit — Change audit flags for a file

Format

chaudit [–Fdai] attr pathname …

Description

chaudit changes the audit attributes of the specified files or directories. Audit attributes determine whether or not accesses to a file are audited by the system authorization facility (SAF) interface.

Restriction: The chaudit command can be used only by the file owner or a superuser for non-auditor-requested audit attributes. Only a user with auditor authority can change the auditor-requested audit attributes.

Options

–F
If you specify a directory as a path name on the command, chaudit changes the audit characteristics of all files in that directory. Subdirectory audit characteristics are not changed.
–d
If you specify a directory as a path name on the command, chaudit changes the audit characteristics of all the subdirectories in that directory. File audit characteristics are not changed.
–a
Auditor-requested audit attributes are to be changed for the files or directories specified. If –a is not specified, user-requested audit attributes are changed.
–i
Does not issue error messages concerning file access authority, even if chaudit encounters such errors.
The symbolic form of the attr argument has the form:
[operation]
op auditcondition[op auditcondition …]
The operation value is any combination of the following:
r
Sets the file to audit read attempts.
w
Sets the file to audit write attempts.
x
Sets the file to audit execute attempts.

The default is rwx.

The op part of a symbolic mode is an operator telling whether chaudit should turn file auditing on or off. The possible values are:
+
Turns on specified audit conditions.
-
Turns off specified audit conditions.
=
Turns on the specified audit conditions and turns off all others.
The auditcondition part of a symbolic mode is any combination of the following:
s
Audit on successful access if the audit attribute is on.
f
Audit on failed access if the audit attribute is on.

You can specify multiple symbolic attr values if you separate them with commas.

Examples

  1. The command:
    chaudit –s file
    changes the file file so that successful file accesses are not audited.
  2. The command:
    chaudit rwx=sf file1
    changes the file file1 so that all successful and unsuccessful file accesses are audited.
  3. The command:
    chaudit r=f file2
    changes the file file2 so that unsuccessful file read accesses are audited.
  4. The command:
    chaudit r-f,w+s file3
    changes the file file3 to not audit unsuccessful file read accesses and to audit successful write accesses.

Localization

chaudit uses the following localization environment variables:
  • LANG
  • LC_ALL
  • LC_MESSAGES
  • NLSPATH

See Localization for more information.

Exit values

0
Successful completion
1
Failure due to any of the following:
  • Inability to access a specified file
  • Inability to change the audit attributes for a specified file
  • Inability to not read the directory containing item to change
  • Irrecoverable error when using the –F or –d option
2
Failure due to any of the following:
  • Missing or incorrect attr argument
  • Too few arguments

Messages

Possible error messages include:
fatal error during -F or -d option
You specified the –F or –d option, but some file or directory in the directory structure was inaccessible. This may happen because of permissions or because you have removed a removable unit.
read directory name
You do not have read permissions on the specified directory.

Portability

None. This is a security extension that comes with z/OS UNIX services.

Related information

chmod, chown, ls