Clarified documentation for os.access().
Patch contributed by Sean Reifschneider.
Closes SF patch #570618.
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libos.tex b/Doc/lib/libos.tex
index 02f44ce..f234e13 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/libos.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/libos.tex
@@ -568,11 +568,13 @@
\subsection{Files and Directories \label{os-file-dir}}
\begin{funcdesc}{access}{path, mode}
-Check read/write/execute permissions for this process or existence of
-file \var{path}. \var{mode} should be \constant{F_OK} to test the
-existence of \var{path}, or it can be the inclusive OR of one or more
-of \constant{R_OK}, \constant{W_OK}, and \constant{X_OK} to test
-permissions. Return \code{1} if access is allowed, \code{0} if not.
+Use the real uid/gid to test for access to \var{path}. Note that most
+operations will use the effective uid/gid, therefore this routine can
+be used in a suid/sgid environment to test if the invoking user has the
+specified access to \var{path}. \var{mode} should be \constant{F_OK}
+to test the existence of \var{path}, or it can be the inclusive OR of
+one or more of \constant{R_OK}, \constant{W_OK}, and \constant{X_OK} to
+test permissions. Return \code{1} if access is allowed, \code{0} if not.
See the \UNIX{} man page \manpage{access}{2} for more information.
Availability: \UNIX, Windows.
\end{funcdesc}
diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
index f3d951a..838e2d7 100644
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -736,7 +736,11 @@
PyDoc_STRVAR(posix_access__doc__,
"access(path, mode) -> 1 if granted, 0 otherwise\n\
-Test for access to a file.");
+Use the real uid/gid to test for access to a path. Note that most
+operations will use the effective uid/gid, therefore this routine can
+be used in a suid/sgid environment to test if the invoking user has the
+specified access to the path. The mode argument can be F_OK to test
+existance, or the inclusive-OR of R_OK, W_OK, and X_OK.");
static PyObject *
posix_access(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)