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symlink() - Unix, Linux System Call
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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
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
| Tag | Description |
|---|
|
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(2).)
|
|
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.
|
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, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
See
open(2)
re multiple files with the same name, and NFS.
SEE ALSO
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