Making openat(2) and friends more useful in practice
by from OpenBSD Journal on (#6XKV5)
Reining in file system access is hard to get right, even forOpenBSD developers.
In a message to tech@ titledopenat(2) is mostly useless, sadlyTheo de Raadt (deraadt@) describes how theopenat(2)family of system calls has failed to live up to expectations in practice,and he proposes changes that may improve the situation.
Theo writes,
List: openbsd-techSubject: openat(2) is mostly useless, sadlyFrom: "Theo de Raadt" <deraadt () openbsd ! org>Date: 2025-05-28 14:03:29The family of system calls related to openat(2) are mostly useless inpractice, rarely used. When they are used it is often ineffectively oreven with performance-reducing results. int openat(int fd, const char *path, int flags, ...);These are the others: