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/.