]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
fea681da | 1 | .\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt; |
ac56b6a8 | 2 | .\" and Copyright (C) 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson. |
fea681da | 3 | .\" |
93015253 | 4 | .\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM) |
fea681da MK |
5 | .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this |
6 | .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are | |
7 | .\" preserved on all copies. | |
8 | .\" | |
9 | .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this | |
10 | .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the | |
11 | .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a | |
12 | .\" permission notice identical to this one. | |
c13182ef | 13 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
14 | .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this |
15 | .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no | |
16 | .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from | |
17 | .\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not | |
18 | .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, | |
19 | .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working | |
20 | .\" professionally. | |
c13182ef | 21 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
22 | .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by |
23 | .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. | |
4b72fb64 | 24 | .\" %%%LICENSE_END |
fea681da MK |
25 | .\" |
26 | .\" Modified 1993-07-24 by Rik Faith | |
27 | .\" Modified 1996-04-26 by Nick Duffek <nsd@bbc.com> | |
28 | .\" Modified 1996-11-06 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> | |
29 | .\" Modified 1997-01-31 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> | |
c11b1abf | 30 | .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> |
fea681da | 31 | .\" |
3fc441b2 | 32 | .TH SYMLINK 2 2013-01-27 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
fea681da MK |
33 | .SH NAME |
34 | symlink \- make a new name for a file | |
35 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
36 | .B #include <unistd.h> | |
37 | .sp | |
38 | .BI "int symlink(const char *" oldpath ", const char *" newpath ); | |
cc4615cc MK |
39 | .sp |
40 | .in -4n | |
41 | Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see | |
42 | .BR feature_test_macros (7)): | |
43 | .in | |
44 | .sp | |
45 | .ad l | |
46 | .BR symlink (): | |
cde2506f MK |
47 | .RS 4 |
48 | _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE\ >=\ 500 || | |
49 | _XOPEN_SOURCE\ &&\ _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED || _POSIX_C_SOURCE\ >=\ 200112L | |
50 | .RE | |
cc4615cc | 51 | .ad b |
fea681da | 52 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
e511ffb6 | 53 | .BR symlink () |
fea681da MK |
54 | creates a symbolic link named |
55 | .I newpath | |
56 | which contains the string | |
57 | .IR oldpath . | |
58 | ||
cf50118f | 59 | Symbolic links are interpreted at run time as if the contents of the |
fea681da MK |
60 | link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file or |
61 | directory. | |
62 | ||
63 | Symbolic links may contain | |
836f07c1 | 64 | .I .. |
fea681da MK |
65 | path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the |
66 | parent directories of that in which the link resides. | |
67 | ||
68 | A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing | |
69 | file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling | |
70 | link. | |
71 | ||
72 | The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is | |
73 | ignored when following the link, but is checked when removal or | |
74 | renaming of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with | |
75 | the sticky bit | |
76 | .RB ( S_ISVTX ) | |
77 | set. | |
78 | ||
79 | If | |
80 | .I newpath | |
81 | exists it will | |
82 | .I not | |
83 | be overwritten. | |
47297adb | 84 | .SH RETURN VALUE |
c13182ef MK |
85 | On success, zero is returned. |
86 | On error, \-1 is returned, and | |
fea681da MK |
87 | .I errno |
88 | is set appropriately. | |
89 | .SH ERRORS | |
90 | .TP | |
91 | .B EACCES | |
92 | Write access to the directory containing | |
93 | .I newpath | |
94 | is denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix of | |
0daa9e92 | 95 | .I newpath |
fea681da MK |
96 | did not allow search permission. |
97 | (See also | |
ad7cc990 | 98 | .BR path_resolution (7).) |
fea681da | 99 | .TP |
a1f01685 | 100 | .B EDQUOT |
9ee4a2b6 | 101 | The user's quota of resources on the filesystem has been exhausted. |
e3b419fa | 102 | The resources could be inodes or disk blocks, depending on the file |
a1f01685 MH |
103 | system implementation. |
104 | .TP | |
fea681da MK |
105 | .B EEXIST |
106 | .I newpath | |
107 | already exists. | |
108 | .TP | |
109 | .B EFAULT | |
110 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " points outside your accessible address space." | |
111 | .TP | |
112 | .B EIO | |
113 | An I/O error occurred. | |
114 | .TP | |
115 | .B ELOOP | |
116 | Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving | |
117 | .IR newpath . | |
118 | .TP | |
119 | .B ENAMETOOLONG | |
120 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " was too long." | |
121 | .TP | |
122 | .B ENOENT | |
123 | A directory component in | |
124 | .I newpath | |
125 | does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or | |
126 | .I oldpath | |
127 | is the empty string. | |
128 | .TP | |
129 | .B ENOMEM | |
130 | Insufficient kernel memory was available. | |
131 | .TP | |
132 | .B ENOSPC | |
133 | The device containing the file has no room for the new directory | |
134 | entry. | |
135 | .TP | |
136 | .B ENOTDIR | |
137 | A component used as a directory in | |
0daa9e92 | 138 | .I newpath |
fea681da MK |
139 | is not, in fact, a directory. |
140 | .TP | |
141 | .B EPERM | |
9ee4a2b6 | 142 | The filesystem containing |
0daa9e92 | 143 | .I newpath |
fea681da MK |
144 | does not support the creation of symbolic links. |
145 | .TP | |
146 | .B EROFS | |
147 | .I newpath | |
9ee4a2b6 | 148 | is on a read-only filesystem. |
47297adb | 149 | .SH CONFORMING TO |
2dd578fd MK |
150 | SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. |
151 | .\" SVr4 documents additional error codes EDQUOT and ENOSYS. | |
152 | .\" See | |
153 | .\" .BR open (2) | |
154 | .\" re multiple files with the same name, and NFS. | |
fea681da MK |
155 | .SH NOTES |
156 | No checking of | |
157 | .I oldpath | |
158 | is done. | |
159 | ||
160 | Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the | |
7c93fec0 | 161 | file (unless it also has other hard links). |
d9bfdb9c | 162 | If this behavior is not desired, use |
0bfa087b | 163 | .BR link (2). |
47297adb | 164 | .SH SEE ALSO |
fea681da | 165 | .BR ln (1), |
a3bf8022 | 166 | .BR lchown (2), |
fea681da MK |
167 | .BR link (2), |
168 | .BR lstat (2), | |
169 | .BR open (2), | |
fea681da MK |
170 | .BR readlink (2), |
171 | .BR rename (2), | |
f5958902 | 172 | .BR symlinkat (2), |
0c2b92ba | 173 | .BR unlink (2), |
a9cfde1d | 174 | .BR path_resolution (7), |
ad22ad55 | 175 | .BR symlink (7) |