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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16 | .\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.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 | .\" |
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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> | |
c11b1abf | 30 | .\" Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> |
fea681da | 31 | .\" |
cc4615cc | 32 | .TH SYMLINK 2 2007-07-26 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
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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 (): | |
47 | _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE\ >=\ 500 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE\ >=\ 200112L | |
48 | .ad b | |
fea681da | 49 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
e511ffb6 | 50 | .BR symlink () |
fea681da MK |
51 | creates a symbolic link named |
52 | .I newpath | |
53 | which contains the string | |
54 | .IR oldpath . | |
55 | ||
cf50118f | 56 | Symbolic links are interpreted at run time as if the contents of the |
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57 | link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file or |
58 | directory. | |
59 | ||
60 | Symbolic links may contain | |
836f07c1 | 61 | .I .. |
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62 | path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the |
63 | parent directories of that in which the link resides. | |
64 | ||
65 | A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing | |
66 | file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling | |
67 | link. | |
68 | ||
69 | The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is | |
70 | ignored when following the link, but is checked when removal or | |
71 | renaming of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with | |
72 | the sticky bit | |
73 | .RB ( S_ISVTX ) | |
74 | set. | |
75 | ||
76 | If | |
77 | .I newpath | |
78 | exists it will | |
79 | .I not | |
80 | be overwritten. | |
81 | .SH "RETURN VALUE" | |
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82 | On success, zero is returned. |
83 | On error, \-1 is returned, and | |
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84 | .I errno |
85 | is set appropriately. | |
86 | .SH ERRORS | |
87 | .TP | |
88 | .B EACCES | |
89 | Write access to the directory containing | |
90 | .I newpath | |
91 | is denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix of | |
0daa9e92 | 92 | .I newpath |
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93 | did not allow search permission. |
94 | (See also | |
ad7cc990 | 95 | .BR path_resolution (7).) |
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96 | .TP |
97 | .B EEXIST | |
98 | .I newpath | |
99 | already exists. | |
100 | .TP | |
101 | .B EFAULT | |
102 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " points outside your accessible address space." | |
103 | .TP | |
104 | .B EIO | |
105 | An I/O error occurred. | |
106 | .TP | |
107 | .B ELOOP | |
108 | Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving | |
109 | .IR newpath . | |
110 | .TP | |
111 | .B ENAMETOOLONG | |
112 | .IR oldpath " or " newpath " was too long." | |
113 | .TP | |
114 | .B ENOENT | |
115 | A directory component in | |
116 | .I newpath | |
117 | does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or | |
118 | .I oldpath | |
119 | is the empty string. | |
120 | .TP | |
121 | .B ENOMEM | |
122 | Insufficient kernel memory was available. | |
123 | .TP | |
124 | .B ENOSPC | |
125 | The device containing the file has no room for the new directory | |
126 | entry. | |
127 | .TP | |
128 | .B ENOTDIR | |
129 | A component used as a directory in | |
0daa9e92 | 130 | .I newpath |
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131 | is not, in fact, a directory. |
132 | .TP | |
133 | .B EPERM | |
24d01c53 | 134 | The file system containing |
0daa9e92 | 135 | .I newpath |
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136 | does not support the creation of symbolic links. |
137 | .TP | |
138 | .B EROFS | |
139 | .I newpath | |
24d01c53 | 140 | is on a read-only file system. |
2dd578fd MK |
141 | .SH "CONFORMING TO" |
142 | SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. | |
143 | .\" SVr4 documents additional error codes EDQUOT and ENOSYS. | |
144 | .\" See | |
145 | .\" .BR open (2) | |
146 | .\" re multiple files with the same name, and NFS. | |
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147 | .SH NOTES |
148 | No checking of | |
149 | .I oldpath | |
150 | is done. | |
151 | ||
152 | Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the | |
7c93fec0 | 153 | file (unless it also has other hard links). |
d9bfdb9c | 154 | If this behavior is not desired, use |
0bfa087b | 155 | .BR link (2). |
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156 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
157 | .BR ln (1), | |
a3bf8022 | 158 | .BR lchown (2), |
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159 | .BR link (2), |
160 | .BR lstat (2), | |
161 | .BR open (2), | |
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162 | .BR readlink (2), |
163 | .BR rename (2), | |
f5958902 | 164 | .BR symlinkat (2), |
0c2b92ba | 165 | .BR unlink (2), |
a9cfde1d | 166 | .BR path_resolution (7), |
ad22ad55 | 167 | .BR symlink (7) |