page.title=&lt;path-permission&gt;
parent.title=The AndroidManifest.xml File
parent.link=manifest-intro.html
@jd:body

<dl class="xml">
<dt>syntax:</dt>
<dd><pre class="stx">
&lt;path-permission android:<a href="#path">path</a>="<i>string</i>"
                 android:<a href="#pathPrefix">pathPrefix</a>="<i>string</i>"
                 android:<a href="#pathPattern">pathPattern</a>="<i>string</i>"
                 android:<a href="#permission">permission</a>="<i>string</i>"
                 android:<a href="#readPermission">readPermission</a>="<i>string</i>"
                 android:<a href="#writePermission">writePermission</a>="<i>string</i>" /&gt;
</pre></dd>

<dt>contained in:</dt>
<dd><code><a href="{@docRoot}guide/topics/manifest/provider-element.html">&lt;provider&gt;</a></code></dd>

<!--
<dt>can contain:</dt>
</dd>
-->

<dt>description:</dt>
<dd itemprop="description">Defines the path and required permissions for a specific subset of data
within a content provider. This element can be
specified multiple times to supply multiple paths.

</dd>

<dt>attributes:</dt>

<dd><dl class="attr">
<dt><a name="path"></a>{@code android:path}</dt>
<dd>A complete URI path for a subset of content provider data. 
Permission can be granted only to the particular data identified by this path. 
When used to provide search suggestion content, it must be appended 
with "/search_suggest_query".
</dd>

<dt><a name="pathPrefix"></a>{@code android:pathPrefix}</dt>
<dd>The initial part of a URI path for a subset of content provider data.
Permission can be granted to all data subsets with paths that share this initial part.
</dd>

<dt><a name="pathPattern"></a>{@code android:pathPattern}</dt>
<dd>A complete URI path for a subset of content provider data,
but one that can use the following wildcards:
 
<ul> 
<li>An asterisk ('<code class="Code prettyprint">*</code>'). This matches a sequence of 0 to many occurrences of
the immediately preceding character.</li> 
 
<li>A period followed by an asterisk ("<code class="Code prettyprint">.*</code>"). This matches any sequence of 
0 or more characters.</li> 
</ul> 
 
<p> 
Because '<code class="Code prettyprint">\</code>' is used as an escape character when the string is read 
from XML (before it is parsed as a pattern), you will need to double-escape.
For example, a literal '<code class="Code prettyprint">*</code>' would be written as "<code class="Code prettyprint">\\*</code>" and a 
literal '<code class="Code prettyprint">\</code>' would be written as "<code class="Code prettyprint">\\</code>".  This is basically 
the same as what you would need to write if constructing the string in Java code.
</p> 
<p> 
For more information on these types of patterns, see the descriptions of 
<a href="/reference/android/os/PatternMatcher.html#PATTERN_LITERAL">PATTERN_LITERAL</a>,
<a href="/reference/android/os/PatternMatcher.html#PATTERN_PREFIX">PATTERN_PREFIX</a>, and
<a href="/reference/android/os/PatternMatcher.html#PATTERN_SIMPLE_GLOB">PATTERN_SIMPLE_GLOB</a> in the
<a href="/reference/android/os/PatternMatcher.html">PatternMatcher</a> class.
</p>
</dd>

<dt><a name="permission"></a>{@code android:permission}</dt>
<dd>The name of a permission that clients must have in order to read or write the
content provider's data.  This attribute is a convenient way of setting a 
single permission for both reading and writing.  However, the 
<code>readPermission</code> and 
<code>writePermission</code> attributes take precedence
over this one.
</dd> 

<dt><a name="readPermission"></a>{@code android:readPermission}</dt>
<dd>A permission that clients must have in order to query the content provider.
</dd> 

<dt><a name="writePermission"></a>{@code android:writePermission}</dt>
<dd>A permission that clients must have in order to make changes to the data controlled by the content provider.
</dd> 


</dl></dd>

<!-- ##api level indication## -->
<dt>introduced in:</dt>
<dd>API Level 4</dd>

<dt>see also:</dt>
<dd>{@link android.app.SearchManager}</dd>
<dd>{@link android.Manifest.permission}</dd>
<dd><a href="/guide/topics/security/security.html">Security and
Permissions</a></dd>

</dl>