FBTAB(5) | File Formats Manual | FBTAB(5)

# NAME

`fbtab` — change device protection upon login

# DESCRIPTION

The `fbtab` file contains lines which specify how the permissions and ownership of various system files should be changed based on the user's login device name.

Comments start with a ‘`#`’ and extend to the end of the line. Blank lines or lines with only a comment are ignored.

All other lines consist of three fields delimited by whitespace.

Login Device
  The device you have logged in on (e.g., “/dev/ttyv0”).
File Permission
  An octal permission number (0600), as used by chmod(2).
Other devices
  The final field is a colon (‘`:`’) delimited list of device paths (e.g., “/dev/console:/dev/fd0a:/dev/wskbd*”). Device paths may include shell-style globbing patterns (see glob(7)), potentially matching multiple devices.

The `fbtab` file is used by login(1) to chown(2) the specified files to the user who has performed a login. Additionally, chmod(2) is used to set the devices to the specified permission. When a user logs out, init(8) is responsible for performing the inverse operation, which results in the files once again belonging to root.

# FILES

/etc/fbtab

# SEE ALSO

login(1), login_fbtab(3), glob(7), init(8)

# AUTHORS

Guido van Rooij

April 21, 2022 | Debian