For each file, getfacl displays the file name, owner, the group, and the Access Control List (ACL). If a directory has a default ACL,

getfacl also displays the default ACL. Non-directories cannot have default ACLs.

If getfacl is used on a file system that does not support ACLs, getfacl displays the access permissions defined by the traditional

file mode permission bits.

The output format of getfacl is as follows:

1: # file: somedir/

2: # owner: lisa

3: # group: staff

4: # flags: -s-

5: user::rwx

6: user:joe:rwx #effective:r-x

7: group::rwx #effective:r-x

8: group:cool:r-x

9: mask::r-x

10: other::r-x

11: default:user::rwx

12: default:user:joe:rwx #effective:r-x

13: default:group::r-x

14: default:mask::r-x

15: default:other::—

Lines 1–3 indicate the file name, owner, and owning group.

Line 4 indicates the setuid (s), setgid (s), and sticky (t) bits: either the letter representing the bit, or else a dash (-). This

line is included if any of those bits is set and left out otherwise, so it will not be shown for most files. (See CONFORMANCE TO POSIX

1003.1e DRAFT STANDARD 17 below.)

Lines 5, 7 and 10 correspond to the user, group and other fields of the file mode permission bits. These three are called the base ACL

entries. Lines 6 and 8 are named user and named group entries. Line 9 is the effective rights mask. This entry limits the effective

rights granted to all groups and to named users. (The file owner and others permissions are not affected by the effective rights mask;

all other entries are.) Lines 11–15 display the default ACL associated with this directory. Directories may have a default ACL. Reg‐

ular files never have a default ACL.

The default behavior for getfacl is to display both the ACL and the default ACL, and to include an effective rights comment for lines

where the rights of the entry differ from the effective rights.

If output is to a terminal, the effective rights comment is aligned to column 40. Otherwise, a single tab character separates the ACL

entry and the effective rights comment.

The ACL listings of multiple files are separated by blank lines. The output of getfacl can also be used as input to setfacl.

Process with search access to a file (i.e., processes with read access to the containing directory of a file) are also granted read

access to the file’s ACLs. This is analogous to the permissions required for accessing the file mode.

-a, –access

Display the file access control list.

-d, –default

Display the default access control list.

-c, –omit-header

Do not display the comment header (the first three lines of each file’s output).

-e, –all-effective

Print all effective rights comments, even if identical to the rights defined by the ACL entry.

-E, –no-effective

Do not print effective rights comments.

-s, –skip-base

Skip files that only have the base ACL entries (owner, group, others).

-R, –recursive

List the ACLs of all files and directories recursively.

-L, –logical

Logical walk, follow symbolic links to directories. The default behavior is to follow symbolic link arguments, and skip symbolic

links encountered in subdirectories. Only effective in combination with -R.

-P, –physical

Physical walk, do not follow symbolic links to directories. This also skips symbolic link arguments. Only effective in combina‐

tion with -R.

-t, –tabular

Use an alternative tabular output format. The ACL and the default ACL are displayed side by side. Permissions that are ineffective

due to the ACL mask entry are displayed capitalized. The entry tag names for the ACL_USER_OBJ and ACL_GROUP_OBJ entries are also

displayed in capital letters, which helps in spotting those entries.

-p, –absolute-names

Do not strip leading slash characters (`/’). The default behavior is to strip leading slash characters.

-n, –numeric

List numeric user and group IDs

-v, –version

Print the version of getfacl and exit.

-h, –help

Print help explaining the command line options.

— End of command line options. All remaining parameters are interpreted as file names, even if they start with a dash character.

– If the file name parameter is a single dash character, getfacl reads a list of files from standard input.

If the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is defined, the default behavior of getfacl changes in the following ways: Unless other‐

wise specified, only the ACL is printed. The default ACL is only printed if the -d option is given. If no command line parameter is

given, getfacl behaves as if it was invoked as “getfacl -”. No flags comments indicating the setuid, setgit, and sticky bits are

generated.