NAME

       symlink, symlinkat — make symbolic link to a file

LIBRARY

       Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int
       symlink(const char *name1, const char *name2);

       int
       symlinkat(const char *name1, int fd, const char *name2);

DESCRIPTION

       A  symbolic  link  name2  is created to name1 (name2 is the name of the file created, name1 is the string
       used in creating the symbolic link).  Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on
       the same file system.

       The symlinkat() system call is equivalent to symlink()  except  in  the  case  where  name2  specifies  a
       relative  path.   In this case the symbolic link is created relative to the directory associated with the
       file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory.  If symlinkat() is passed the special  value
       AT_FDCWD  in  the  fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a
       call to symlink().

RETURN VALUES

       The symlink() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value  -1  is  returned  and  the
       global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The symbolic link succeeds unless:

       [ENOTDIR]          A component of the name2 path prefix is not a directory.

       [ENAMETOOLONG]     A  component  of  the  name2 pathname exceeded 255 characters, or the entire length of
                          either path name exceeded 1023 characters.

       [ENOENT]           A component of the name2 path prefix does not exist.

       [EACCES]           A component of the name2 path prefix denies search permission, or write permission  is
                          denied on the parent directory of the file to be created.

       [ELOOP]            Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the name2 path name.

       [EEXIST]           The path name pointed at by the name2 argument already exists.

       [EPERM]            The  parent  directory  of the file named by name2 has its immutable flag set, see the
                          chflags(2) manual page for more information.

       [EIO]              An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for name2,  or  allocating  the
                          inode for name2, or writing out the link contents of name2.

       [EROFS]            The file name2 would reside on a read-only file system.

       [ENOSPC]           The  directory  in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed cannot be
                          extended because there is no space left on the file system containing the directory.

       [ENOSPC]           The new symbolic link cannot be created because there is no space  left  on  the  file
                          system that will contain the symbolic link.

       [ENOSPC]           There  are  no  free  inodes  on  the  file system on which the symbolic link is being
                          created.

       [EDQUOT]           The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed  cannot  be
                          extended  because  the  user's  quota of disk blocks on the file system containing the
                          directory has been exhausted.

       [EDQUOT]           The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's quota of disk blocks on the
                          file system that will contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.

       [EDQUOT]           The user's quota of inodes on the file system on which  the  symbolic  link  is  being
                          created has been exhausted.

       [EIO]              An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.

       [EFAULT]           The name1 or name2 argument points outside the process's allocated address space.

       In addition to the errors returned by the symlink(), the symlinkat() may fail if:

       [EBADF]            The  name2  argument  does not specify an absolute path and the fd argument is neither
                          AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.

       [ENOTDIR]          The name2 argument is not an absolute path and fd  is  neither  AT_FDCWD  nor  a  file
                          descriptor associated with a directory.

SEE ALSO

       ln(1), chflags(2), link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), unlink(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS

       The symlinkat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.

HISTORY

       The symlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.  The symlinkat() system call appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

Debian                                           April 10, 2008                                       SYMLINK(2)