SYMLINK
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 24 July 1993
Index
Return to Main Contents
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
oldpath
which contains
newpath.
Symbolic links are interpreted at run-time, as if the contents of the
link were 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 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
pathname
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
-
The file is on a read-only filesystem.
- EEXIST
-
newpath
already exists.
- ELOOP
-
newpath
contains a reference to a circular symbolic link, ie a symbolic link
whose expansion contains a reference to itself.
- ENOSPC
-
The device containing the file has no room for the new directory
entry.
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
SVID, AT&T, POSIX, BSD 4.3
BUGS
See
open(2)
re multiple files with the same name, and NFS.
SEE ALSO
link(2), unlink(2), rename(2), open(2),
lstat(2), ln(1), link(8).
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- NOTES
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- BUGS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
This document was created by
man2html,
using the manual pages.
Time: 12:25:14 GMT, March 22, 2025