symlink

SYMLINK(2)		  Linux Programmer’s Manual		   SYMLINK(2)



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  newpath which contains the
       string oldpath.

       Symbolic links are interpreted at run-time as if the contents  of  the
       link  had been 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 renam-
       ing 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 newpath 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	 dan-
	      gling 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  newpath is on a read-only filesystem.

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving  newpath.

       ENOSPC The  device  containing the file has no room for the new direc-
	      tory entry.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

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
       SVr4, SVID, POSIX, BSD 4.3.  SVr4  documents  additional	 error	codes
       SVr4,  SVID,  BSD  4.3, X/OPEN.	SVr4 documents additional error codes
       EDQUOT and ENOSYS.  See open(2) re multiple files with the same	name,
       and NFS.

SEE ALSO
       readlink(2), link(2), unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), lstat(2), ln(1)



Linux 2.0.30			  1997-08-21			   SYMLINK(2)