NAME
symlink,
symlinkat —
make symbolic link to a file
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
symlink(
const
char *name1,
const char
*name2);
int
symlinkat(
const
char *name1,
int fd,
const char *name2);
DESCRIPTION
A symbolic link
name2 is created to
name1 (
name2 is the name of the
file created,
name1 is the string used in creating the
symbolic link). Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need
neither to be on the same file system nor to exist.
symlinkat() works the same way as
symlink()
except if
path2 is relative. In that case, it is looked
up from a directory whose file descriptor was passed as
fd. Search permission is required on this directory.
fd can be set to
AT_FDCWD
in
order to specify the current directory.
RETURN VALUES
The
symlink() and
symlinkat() functions
return the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned
and the global variable
errno is set to indicate the
error.
ERRORS
symlink() and
symlinkat() will fail and no
link will be created if:
-
-
- [
EACCES
]
- A component of the name2 path prefix
denies search permission.
-
-
- [
EDQUOT
]
- The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link
is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks
on the file system containing the directory has been exhausted. Or, the
new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's quota of disk
blocks on the file system that will contain the symbolic link has been
exhausted. Or, the user's quota of inodes on the file system on which the
symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.
-
-
- [
EEXIST
]
- name2 already exists.
-
-
- [
EFAULT
]
- name1 or name2
points outside the process's allocated address space.
-
-
- [
EIO
]
- An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for
name2, or allocating the inode for
name2, or writing out the link contents of
name2. Or, an I/O error occurred while making the
directory entry or allocating the inode.
-
-
- [
ELOOP
]
- Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
pathname.
-
-
- [
ENAMETOOLONG
]
- A component of a pathname exceeded
{
NAME_MAX
} characters, or an entire path name
exceeded {PATH_MAX
} characters.
-
-
- [
ENOENT
]
- A component of the name2 path does
not exist.
-
-
- [
ENOSPC
]
- The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link
is being placed cannot be extended because there is no space left on the
file system containing the directory. Or, the new symbolic link cannot be
created because there there is no space left on the file system that will
contain the symbolic link. Or, there are no free inodes on the file system
on which the symbolic link is being created.
-
-
- [
ENOTDIR
]
- A component of the name2 prefix is
not a directory.
-
-
- [
EROFS
]
- The file name2 would reside on a
read-only file system.
In addition,
symlinkat() will fail if:
-
-
- [
EBADF
]
- name2 does not specify an absolute
path and fd is neither
AT_FDCWD
nor a valid file descriptor open for
reading or searching.
-
-
- [
ENOTDIR
]
- name2 is not an absolute path and
fd is a file descriptor associated with a
non-directory file.
SEE ALSO
ln(1),
link(2),
readlink(2),
unlink(2),
symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The
symlink() function conforms to
IEEE Std
1003.1-1990 (“POSIX.1”).
symlinkat()
conforms to
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
(“POSIX.1”).
HISTORY
The
symlink() function call appeared in
4.2BSD.