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getfacl is a file utility for viewing the access control list information associated with a file or directory.

Access control lists are extended attributes added to most major file systems in the 2.6 kernel to improve ability to control the access of files. They allow permissions to be set for individual groups and users and not just the owning user, owning group, and all other users.

Getfacl Man page:

GETFACL(1) Access Control Lists                                                              

NAME
       getfacl - get file access control lists

SYNOPSIS
       getfacl [-dRLPvh] file ...

       getfacl [-dRLPvh] -


DESCRIPTION
       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:  user::rwx
               5:  user:joe:rwx             #effective:r-x
               6:  group::rwx               #effective:r-x
               7:  group:cool:r-x
               8:  mask:r-x
               9:  other:r-x
              10:  default:user::rwx
              11:  default:user:joe:rwx     #effective:r-x
              12:  default:group::r-x
              13:  default:mask:r-x
              14:  default:other:---


       Lines 4, 6 and 9 correspond to the user, group and other fields of the file mode permission bits. These three are called the base ACL entries. Lines 5 and 7 are named user and named group entries. Line 8 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 10--14 display the default ACL associated with this directory. Directories may have a default ACL. Regular 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.


   PERMISSIONS
       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.

   OPTIONS
       --access
           Display the file access control list.

       -d, --default
           Display the default access control list.

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

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

       --no-effective
           Do not print effective rights comments.

       --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. The default behavior is to follow symbolic link arguments, and to skip symbolic links encountered in subdirectories.

       -P, --physical
           Physical walk, skip all symbolic links. This also skips symbolic link arguments.

       --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.

       --absolute-names
           Do not strip leading slash characters (`/'). The default behavior is to strip leading slash characters.

       --version
           Print the version of getfacl and exit.

       --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.


CONFORMANCE TO POSIX 1003.1e DRAFT STANDARD 17
       If the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is defined, the default behavior of getfacl changes in the following ways: Unless otherwise 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-.

AUTHOR
       Andreas Gruenbacher, <a.gruenbacher@bestbits.at>.

       Please send your bug reports and comments to the above address.