symlink

SYMLINK(2)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                SYMLINK(2)



NAME
       symlink - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

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

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 renam-
       ing of the link is requested and the link is in a  directory  with  the
       sticky bit 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
       EPERM  The filesystem containing newpath does not support the  creation
              of symbolic links.

       EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.

       EACCES Write access to the directory containing newpath is not  allowed
              for  the  process's  effective uid, or one of the directories in
              newpath did not allow search (execute) permission.

       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.

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

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only filesystem.

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.

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

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

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  behaviour  is  not
       desired, use link.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4,  SVID,  POSIX,  BSD  4.3.   SVr4 documents additional error codes
       SVr4, SVID, BSD 4.3, X/OPEN.  SVr4  documents  additional  error  codes
       EDQUOT  and  ENOSYS.  See open(2) re multiple files with the same name,
       and NFS.

SEE ALSO
       readlink(2), link(2), unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), lstat(2), ln(1)



Linux 2.0.30                      1997-08-21                        SYMLINK(2)