symlinkat() - Unix, Linux System Call

NAME

symlinkat - create a symbolic link relative to a directory file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdio.h> 

int symlinkat(const char *oldpath, int newdirfd 
", const char *" newpath );

DESCRIPTION

The symlinkat() system call operates in exactly the same way as symlink(2), except for the differences described in this manual page.

If the pathname given in newpath is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor newdirfd (rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by symlink(2) for a relative pathname).

If the pathname given in newpath is relative and newdirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then newpath is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like symlink(2)).

If the pathname given in newpath is absolute, then newdirfd is ignored.

RETURN VALUE

On success, symlinkat() returns 0. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The same errors that occur for symlink(2) can also occur for symlinkat(). The following additional errors can occur for symlinkat():

Tag	Description
EBADF	newdirfd is not a valid file descriptor.
ENOTDIR
	newpath is a relative path and newdirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.

NOTES

See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for symlinkat().

CONFORMING TO

This system call is non-standard but is proposed for inclusion in a future revision of POSIX.1.

VERSIONS

symlinkat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16.