Is there a simple C or C++ API to modify selinux contexts?

Question

In C or C++ if I want to modify the filesystem permissions of a file I can us a standard library function (chmod), which is very similar to the utility that one can execute from the UNIX prompt.

Is there an equivalently simple way to set the selinux context for a file? If so, what libraries do I need to link to and what header files need to be included? Something which is similarly simple to use as the command line utility chcon would be ideal.

Answer 1

#include <selinux/selinux.h>

typedef char *security_context_t;

int setfilecon(const char *path, security_context_t con);

is probably the function you are looking for. You have to link against libselinux.