]>
Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
fea681da MK |
1 | .\" Hey Emacs! This file is -*- nroff -*- source. |
2 | .\" | |
3 | .\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt; | |
4 | .\" 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson. | |
5 | .\" | |
6 | .\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this | |
7 | .\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are | |
8 | .\" preserved on all copies. | |
9 | .\" | |
10 | .\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this | |
11 | .\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the | |
12 | .\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a | |
13 | .\" permission notice identical to this one. | |
c13182ef | 14 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
15 | .\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this |
16 | .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no | |
17 | .\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from | |
18 | .\" the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not | |
19 | .\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, | |
20 | .\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working | |
21 | .\" professionally. | |
c13182ef | 22 | .\" |
fea681da MK |
23 | .\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by |
24 | .\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. | |
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> | |
305a0578 | 30 | .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net> |
fea681da MK |
31 | .\" |
32 | .TH SYMLINK 2 2004-06-23 "Linux 2.6.7" "Linux Programmer's Manual" | |
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 ); | |
39 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
e511ffb6 | 40 | .BR symlink () |
fea681da MK |
41 | creates a symbolic link named |
42 | .I newpath | |
43 | which contains the string | |
44 | .IR oldpath . | |
45 | ||
46 | Symbolic links are interpreted at run-time as if the contents of the | |
47 | link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file or | |
48 | directory. | |
49 | ||
50 | Symbolic links may contain | |
836f07c1 | 51 | .I .. |
fea681da MK |
52 | path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the |
53 | parent directories of that in which the link resides. | |
54 | ||
55 | A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing | |
56 | file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling | |
57 | link. | |
58 | ||
59 | The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is | |
60 | ignored when following the link, but is checked when removal or | |
61 | renaming of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with | |
62 | the sticky bit | |
63 | .RB ( S_ISVTX ) | |
64 | set. | |
65 | ||
66 | If | |
67 | .I newpath | |
68 | exists it will | |
69 | .I not | |
70 | be overwritten. | |
71 | .SH "RETURN VALUE" | |
c13182ef MK |
72 | On success, zero is returned. |
73 | On error, \-1 is returned, and | |
fea681da MK |
74 | .I errno |
75 | is set appropriately. | |
76 | .SH ERRORS | |
77 | .TP | |
78 | .B EACCES | |
79 | Write access to the directory containing | |
80 | .I newpath | |
81 | is denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix of | |
82 | .IR newpath | |
83 | did not allow search permission. | |
84 | (See also | |
85 | .BR path_resolution (2).) | |
86 | .TP | |
87 | .B EEXIST | |
88 | .I newpath | |
89 | already exists. | |
90 | .TP | |
91 | .B EFAULT | |
92 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " points outside your accessible address space." | |
93 | .TP | |
94 | .B EIO | |
95 | An I/O error occurred. | |
96 | .TP | |
97 | .B ELOOP | |
98 | Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving | |
99 | .IR newpath . | |
100 | .TP | |
101 | .B ENAMETOOLONG | |
102 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " was too long." | |
103 | .TP | |
104 | .B ENOENT | |
105 | A directory component in | |
106 | .I newpath | |
107 | does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or | |
108 | .I oldpath | |
109 | is the empty string. | |
110 | .TP | |
111 | .B ENOMEM | |
112 | Insufficient kernel memory was available. | |
113 | .TP | |
114 | .B ENOSPC | |
115 | The device containing the file has no room for the new directory | |
116 | entry. | |
117 | .TP | |
118 | .B ENOTDIR | |
119 | A component used as a directory in | |
120 | .IR newpath | |
121 | is not, in fact, a directory. | |
122 | .TP | |
123 | .B EPERM | |
124 | The filesystem containing | |
125 | .IR newpath | |
126 | does not support the creation of symbolic links. | |
127 | .TP | |
128 | .B EROFS | |
129 | .I newpath | |
130 | is on a read-only filesystem. | |
131 | .SH NOTES | |
132 | No checking of | |
133 | .I oldpath | |
134 | is done. | |
135 | ||
136 | Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the | |
137 | file (unless it also has other hard links). If this behaviour is not | |
138 | desired, use | |
0bfa087b | 139 | .BR link (2). |
fea681da | 140 | .SH "CONFORMING TO" |
c13182ef | 141 | SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. |
97c1eac8 | 142 | .\" SVr4 documents additional error codes EDQUOT and ENOSYS. |
7e91e5d8 MK |
143 | .\" See |
144 | .\" .BR open (2) | |
145 | .\" re multiple files with the same name, and NFS. | |
fea681da MK |
146 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
147 | .BR ln (1), | |
148 | .BR link (2), | |
149 | .BR lstat (2), | |
150 | .BR open (2), | |
151 | .BR path_resolution (2), | |
152 | .BR readlink (2), | |
153 | .BR rename (2), | |
f5958902 | 154 | .BR symlinkat (2), |
fea681da | 155 | .BR unlink (2) |