trusty (2) symlink.2.gz

NAME

       symlink - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int symlink(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       symlink():
           _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED ||
           _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION

       symlink() creates a symbolic link named newpath which contains the string oldpath.

       Symbolic links are interpreted at run time as if the contents of the link had been substituted  into  the
       path being followed to find a file or directory.

       Symbolic  links  may  contain  ..  path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the
       parent directories of that in which the link resides.

       A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing file or to a  nonexistent  one;  the
       latter case is known as a dangling link.

       The  permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is ignored when following the link, but
       is checked when removal or renaming of the link is requested and the link is  in  a  directory  with  the
       sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set.

       If newpath exists it will not be overwritten.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EACCES Write  access to the directory containing newpath is denied, or one of the directories in the path
              prefix of newpath did not allow search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EDQUOT The user's quota of resources on the filesystem has been exhausted.  The resources could be inodes
              or disk blocks, depending on the filesystem implementation.

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              oldpath or newpath was too long.

       ENOENT A  directory component in newpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or oldpath is the
              empty string.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry.

       ENOTDIR
              A component used as a directory in newpath is not, in fact, a directory.

       EPERM  The filesystem containing newpath does not support the creation of symbolic links.

       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only filesystem.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

       No checking of oldpath is done.

       Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the file (unless it also has  other  hard
       links).  If this behavior is not desired, use link(2).

SEE ALSO

       ln(1),   lchown(2),   link(2),   lstat(2),  open(2),  readlink(2),  rename(2),  symlinkat(2),  unlink(2),
       path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the  project,  and
       information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.