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NAME

        readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS

        #include <unistd.h>
 
        ssize_t readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);

DESCRIPTION

        readlink()  places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer
        buf, which has size bufsiz.  readlink() does not append a null byte  to
        buf.  It will truncate the contents (to a length of bufsiz characters),
        in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.
        The call returns the count of characters placed in  the  buffer  if  it
        succeeds,  or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in errno.

ERRORS

        EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path  prefix.
               (See also path_resolution(7).)
 
        EFAULT buf extends outside the process’s allocated address space.
 
        EINVAL bufsiz is not positive.
 
        EINVAL The named file is not a symbolic link.
 
        EIO    An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
 
        ELOOP  Too  many  symbolic  links  were  encountered in translating the
               pathname.
 
        ENAMETOOLONG
               A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.
 
        ENOENT The named file does not exist.
 
        ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
 
        ENOTDIR
               A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
        4.4BSD (the readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

        In  versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of
        readlink() was declared as int.  Nowadays, the return type is  declared
        as ssize_t, as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.
        lstat(2), readlinkat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), path_resolution(7)