man2/access.2

@@ -278,12 +278,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR faccessat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 Invalid flag specified in

man2/chmod.2

@@ -309,12 +309,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR fchmodat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 Invalid flag specified in

man2/chown.2

@@ -293,12 +293,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR fchownat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 Invalid flag specified in

man2/execveat.2

@@ -121,12 +121,9 @@ can also occur for
 The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR execveat ():
 .TP
-.I pathname
-is relative but
+.B EBADF
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 Invalid flag specified in

man2/fanotify_mark.2

@@ -357,62 +357,7 @@ has the value
 .BR AT_FDCWD ,
 then the filesystem object to be marked is determined by interpreting
 .I pathname
-relative to the current working directory.
-(See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of why the
-.I dirfd
-argument is useful.)
-.PP
-The
-.BR mount_setattr ()
-system call uses an extensible structure
-.RI ( "struct mount_attr" )
-to allow for future extensions.
-Any non-flag extensions to
-.BR mount_setattr ()
-will be implemented as new fields appended to the this structure,
-with a zero value in a new field resulting in the kernel behaving
-as though that extension field was not present.
-Therefore,
-the caller
-.I must
-zero-fill this structure on initialization.
-See the "Extensibility" subsection under
-.B NOTES
-for more details.
-.PP
-The
-.I size
-argument should usually be specified as
-.IR "sizeof(struct mount_attr)" .
-However, if the caller is using a kernel that supports an extended
-.IR "struct mount_attr" ,
-but the caller does not intend to make use of these features,
-it is possible to pass the size of an earlier
-version of the structure together with the extended structure.
-This allows the kernel to not copy later parts of the structure
-that aren't used anyway.
-With each extension that changes the size of
-.IR "struct mount_attr" ,
-the kernel will expose a definition of the form
-.BI MOUNT_ATTR_SIZE_VER number\c
-\&.
-For example, the macro for the size of the initial version of
-.I struct mount_attr
-is
-.BR MOUNT_ATTR_SIZE_VER0 .
-.PP
-The
-.I flags
-argument can be used to alter the pathname resolution behavior.
-The supported values are:
-.TP
-.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
-If
-.I pathname
-is the empty string,
-change the mount properties on
+relative the current working directory.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success,
 .BR fanotify_mark ()
@@ -426,14 +371,6 @@ is set to indicate the error.
 An invalid file descriptor was passed in
 .IR fanotify_fd .
 .TP
-.B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
-.I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
-.TP
 .B EINVAL
 An invalid value was passed in
 .IR flags

man2/futimesat.2

@@ -83,11 +83,6 @@ If
 is absolute, then
 .I dirfd
 is ignored.
-(See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of why the
-.I dirfd
-argument is useful.)
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success,
 .BR futimesat ()
@@ -104,12 +99,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR futimesat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname

man2/link.2

@@ -282,14 +282,10 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR linkat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I oldpath
-.RI ( newpath )
-is relative but
 .I olddirfd
-.RI ( newdirfd )
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+or
+.I newdirfd
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 An invalid flag value was specified in

man2/mkdir.2

@@ -192,12 +192,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR mkdirat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname

man2/mknod.2

@@ -229,12 +229,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR mknodat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname

man2/mount_setattr.2

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ mount_setattr \- change properties of a mount or mount tree
 .BR "#include <sys/syscall.h>" " /* Definition of " SYS_* " constants */"
 .B #include <unistd.h>
 .PP
-.BI "int syscall(SYS_mount_setattr, int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ,
+.BI "int syscall(SYS_mount_setattr, int " dirfd ", const char *" path ,
 .BI "            unsigned int " flags ", struct mount_attr *" attr \
 ", size_t " size );
 .fi
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ The
 .BR mount_setattr ()
 system call changes the mount properties of a mount or an entire mount tree.
 If
-.I pathname
+.I path
 is a relative pathname,
 then it is interpreted relative to
 the directory referred to by the file descriptor
@@ -59,11 +59,11 @@ If
 is the special value
 .BR AT_FDCWD ,
 then
-.I pathname
+.I path
 is interpreted relative to
 the current working directory of the calling process.
 If
-.I pathname
+.I path
 is the empty string and
 .B AT_EMPTY_PATH
 is specified in
@@ -71,11 +71,6 @@ is specified in
 then the mount properties of the mount identified by
 .I dirfd
 are changed.
-(See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of why the
-.I dirfd
-argument is useful.)
 .PP
 The
 .BR mount_setattr ()
@@ -118,12 +113,12 @@ is
 .PP
 The
 .I flags
-argument can be used to alter the pathname resolution behavior.
+argument can be used to alter the path resolution behavior.
 The supported values are:
 .TP
 .B AT_EMPTY_PATH
 If
-.I pathname
+.I path
 is the empty string,
 change the mount properties on
 .I dirfd
@@ -413,12 +408,8 @@ is set to indicate the cause of the error.
 .SH ERRORS
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EBADF
 .I userns_fd
@@ -430,10 +421,10 @@ The caller tried to change the mount to
 but the mount still holds files open for writing.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
-The pathname specified via the
+The path specified via the
 .I dirfd
 and
-.I pathname
+.I path
 arguments to
 .BR mount_setattr ()
 isn't a mount point.
@@ -502,7 +493,7 @@ The underlying filesystem does not support ID-mapped mounts.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 The mount that is to be ID mapped is not a detached mount;
-that is, the mount has not previously been visible in a mount namespace.
+that is, the mount is already visible in the filesystem.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 A partial access-time setting was specified in
@@ -515,8 +506,7 @@ being set.
 The mount is located outside the caller's mount namespace.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
-The underlying filesystem has been mounted in a mount namespace that is
-owned by a noninitial user namespace
+The underlying filesystem is mounted in a user namespace.
 .TP
 .B ENOENT
 A pathname was empty or had a nonexistent component.
@@ -526,21 +516,16 @@ When changing mount propagation to
 .BR MS_SHARED ,
 a new peer group ID needs to be allocated for all mounts without a peer group
 ID set.
-This allocation failed because there was not
-enough memory to allocate the relevant internal structures.
+Allocation of this peer group ID has failed.
 .TP
 .B ENOSPC
 When changing mount propagation to
 .BR MS_SHARED ,
 a new peer group ID needs to be allocated for all mounts without a peer group
 ID set.
-This allocation failed because
-the kernel has run out of IDs.
-.\" Christian Bruner: i.e. someone has somehow managed to
-.\" allocate so many peer groups and managed to keep the kernel running
-.\" (???) that the ida has ran out of ids
-.\" Note that technically further error codes are possible that are
-.\" specific to the ID allocation implementation used.
+Allocation of this peer group ID can fail.
+Note that technically further error codes are possible that are specific to the
+ID allocation implementation used.
 .TP
 .B EPERM
 One of the mounts had at least one of
@@ -556,9 +541,8 @@ Mount attributes become locked on a mount if:
 .RS
 .IP \(bu 3
 A new mount or mount tree is created causing mount propagation across user
-namespaces
-(i.e., propagation to a mount namespace owned by a different user namespace).
-The kernel will lock the aforementioned flags to prevent these sensitive
+namespaces.
+The kernel will lock the aforementioned flags to protect these sensitive
 properties from being altered.
 .IP \(bu
 A new mount and user namespace pair is created.
@@ -569,14 +553,8 @@ in
 .BR clone (2),
 or
 .BR clone3 (2).
-The aforementioned flags become locked in the new mount namespace
-to prevent sensitive mount properties from being altered.
-Since the newly created mount namespace will be owned by the
-newly created user namespace,
-a calling process that is privileged in the new
-user namespace would\(emin the absence of such locking\(embe
-able to alter sensitive mount properties (e.g., to remount a mount
-that was marked read-only as read-write in the new mount namespace).
+The aforementioned flags become locked to protect user namespaces from altering
+sensitive mount properties.
 .RE
 .TP
 .B EPERM
@@ -665,11 +643,7 @@ it must have been created by calling
 .BR open_tree (2)
 with the
 .B OPEN_TREE_CLONE
-flag and it must not already have been visible in a mount namespace.
-(To put things another way:
-the mount must not have been attached to the filesystem hierarchy
-with a system call such as
-.BR move_mount (2).)
+flag and it must not already have been visible in the filesystem.
 .PP
 ID mappings can be created for user IDs, group IDs, and project IDs.
 An ID mapping is essentially a mapping of a range of user or group IDs into
@@ -894,10 +868,10 @@ with a structure which has every byte nonzero
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 static inline int
-mount_setattr(int dirfd, const char *pathname, unsigned int flags,
+mount_setattr(int dirfd, const char *path, unsigned int flags,
               struct mount_attr *attr, size_t size)
 {
-    return syscall(SYS_mount_setattr, dirfd, pathname, flags, attr, size);
+    return syscall(SYS_mount_setattr, dirfd, path, flags, attr, size);
 }
 
 static inline int
@@ -978,10 +952,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
     const char *source = argv[optind];
     const char *target = argv[optind + 1];
 
-    /* In the following, \-1 as the \(aqdirfd\(aq argument ensures that
-       open_tree() fails if \(aqsource\(aq is not an absolute pathname. */
-
-    int fd_tree = open_tree(\-1, source,
+    int fd_tree = open_tree(\-EBADF, source,
                        OPEN_TREE_CLONE | OPEN_TREE_CLOEXEC |
                        AT_EMPTY_PATH | (recursive ? AT_RECURSIVE : 0));
     if (fd_tree == \-1)
@@ -1000,10 +971,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
     close(fd_userns);
 
-    /* In the following, \-1 as the \(aqto_dirfd\(aq argument ensures that
-       open_tree() fails if \(aqtarget\(aq is not an absolute pathname. */
-
-    ret = move_mount(fd_tree, "", \-1, target,
+    ret = move_mount(fd_tree, "", \-EBADF, target,
                      MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
     if (ret == \-1)
         exit_log("%m \- Failed to attach mount to %s\en", target);

man2/open.2

@@ -926,19 +926,17 @@ system call operates in exactly the same way as
 .BR open (),
 except for the differences described here.
 .PP
-The
-.I dirfd
-argument is used in conjunction with the
-.I pathname
-argument as follows:
-.IP * 3
 If the pathname given in
 .I pathname
-is absolute, then
+is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory
+referred to by the file descriptor
 .I dirfd
-is ignored.
-.IP *
-If the pathname given in
+(rather than relative to the current working directory of
+the calling process, as is done by
+.BR open ()
+for a relative pathname).
+.PP
+If
 .I pathname
 is relative and
 .I dirfd
@@ -949,36 +947,12 @@ then
 is interpreted relative to the current working
 directory of the calling process (like
 .BR open ()).
-.IP *
-If the pathname given in
-.I pathname
-is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory
-referred to by the file descriptor
-.I dirfd
-(rather than relative to the current working directory of
-the calling process, as is done by
-.BR open ()
-for a relative pathname).
-In this case,
-.I dirfd
-must be a directory that was opened for reading
-.RB ( O_RDONLY )
-or using the
-.B O_PATH
-flag.
 .PP
-If the pathname given in
+If
 .I pathname
-is relative, and
+is absolute, then
 .I dirfd
-is not a valid file descriptor, an error
-.RB ( EBADF )
-results.
-(Specifying an invalid file descriptor number in
-.I dirfd
-can be used as a means to ensure that
-.I pathname
-is absolute.)
+is ignored.
 .\"
 .SS openat2(2)
 The
@@ -1290,12 +1264,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR openat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname
@@ -1641,14 +1611,13 @@ a directory file descriptor argument
 .BR futimesat (2),
 .BR linkat (2),
 .BR mkdirat (2),
-.BR mknodat (2),
 .BR move_mount (2),
+.BR mknodat (2),
 .BR name_to_handle_at (2),
 .BR open_tree (2),
 .BR openat2 (2),
 .BR readlinkat (2),
 .BR renameat (2),
-.BR renameat2 (2),
 .BR statx (2),
 .BR symlinkat (2),
 .BR unlinkat (2),

man2/open_by_handle_at.2

@@ -347,14 +347,6 @@ can fail with the following errors:
 .IR mount_fd
 is not an open file descriptor.
 .TP
-.B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
-.I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
-.TP
 .B EFAULT
 .IR handle
 points outside your accessible address space.

man2/readlink.2

@@ -200,12 +200,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR readlinkat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname

man2/rename.2

@@ -438,11 +438,9 @@ and
 .BR renameat2 ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I oldpath
-.RI ( newpath )
-is relative but
 .I olddirfd
-.RI ( newdirfd )
+or
+.I newdirfd
 is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR

man2/stat.2

@@ -434,12 +434,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR fstatat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 Invalid flag specified in

man2/statx.2

@@ -142,9 +142,6 @@ is a file descriptor that refers to a directory, then
 is a relative pathname that is interpreted relative to the directory
 referred to by
 .IR dirfd .
-(See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of why this is useful.)
 .TP
 By file descriptor
 If
@@ -508,12 +505,8 @@ in the path prefix of
 .BR path_resolution (7).)
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid open file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EFAULT
 .I pathname

man2/symlink.2

@@ -131,11 +131,6 @@ If
 is absolute, then
 .I newdirfd
 is ignored.
-.PP
-See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of the need for
-.BR symlinkat ().
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success, zero is returned.
 On error, \-1 is returned, and
@@ -208,12 +203,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR symlinkat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I linkpath
-is relative but
 .I newdirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOENT
 .I linkpath

man2/unlink.2

@@ -246,12 +246,8 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR unlinkat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B EINVAL
 An invalid flag value was specified in

man2/utimensat.2

@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ is not a valid file descriptor.
 .B EBADF
 .RB ( utimensat ())
 .I pathname
-is relative but
+is a relative pathname, but
 .I dirfd
 is neither
 .BR AT_FDCWD

man3/mkfifo.3

@@ -111,11 +111,6 @@ If
 is absolute, then
 .I dirfd
 is ignored.
-.PP
-See
-.BR openat (2)
-for an explanation of the need for
-.BR mkfifoat ().
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success
 .BR mkfifo ()
@@ -167,16 +162,12 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR mkfifoat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I pathname
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I pathname
-is a relative pathname and
+is a relative path and
 .I dirfd
 is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
 .SH VERSIONS

man3/scandir.3

@@ -204,16 +204,12 @@ The following additional errors can occur for
 .BR scandirat ():
 .TP
 .B EBADF
-.I dirp
-is relative but
 .I dirfd
-is neither
-.B AT_FDCWD
-nor a valid file descriptor.
+is not a valid file descriptor.
 .TP
 .B ENOTDIR
 .I dirp
-is a relative pathname and
+is a relative path and
 .I dirfd
 is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
 .SH VERSIONS

man7/mount_namespaces.7

@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ attempting to unlink, rename, or remove a file or directory
 that was a mount point in another mount namespace would result in the error
 .BR EBUSY .
 That behavior had technical problems of enforcement (e.g., for NFS)
-and permitted denial-of-service attacks against more privileged users
+and permitted denial-of-service attacks against more privileged users.
 (i.e., preventing individual files from being updated
 by bind mounting on top of them).
 .\"