symlink(2)

1SYMLINK(2)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                SYMLINK(2)
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NAME

6       symlink - make a new name for a file
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <unistd.h>
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11       int symlink(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
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13   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
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15       symlink():
16           _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
17           _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED ||
18           _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
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DESCRIPTION

21       symlink()  creates  a  symbolic  link  named newpath which contains the
22       string oldpath.
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24       Symbolic links are interpreted at run time as if the  contents  of  the
25       link  had  been substituted into the path being followed to find a file
26       or directory.
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28       Symbolic links may contain ..  path components, which (if used  at  the
29       start of the link) refer to the parent directories of that in which the
30       link resides.
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32       A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point  to  an  existing
33       file  or  to  a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling
34       link.
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36       The permissions of a symbolic link are  irrelevant;  the  ownership  is
37       ignored  when following the link, but is checked when removal or renam‐
38       ing of the link is requested and the link is in a  directory  with  the
39       sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set.
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41       If newpath exists it will not be overwritten.
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RETURN VALUE

44       On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
45       set appropriately.
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ERRORS

48       EACCES Write access to the directory containing newpath is  denied,  or
49              one  of  the  directories  in the path prefix of newpath did not
50              allow search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)
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52       EDQUOT The user's quota of  resources  on  the  file  system  has  been
53              exhausted.   The  resources  could  be  inodes  or  disk blocks,
54              depending on the file system implementation.
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56       EEXIST newpath already exists.
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58       EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.
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60       EIO    An I/O error occurred.
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62       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.
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64       ENAMETOOLONG
65              oldpath or newpath was too long.
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67       ENOENT A directory component in newpath does not exist or is a dangling
68              symbolic link, or oldpath is the empty string.
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70       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
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72       ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory
73              entry.
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75       ENOTDIR
76              A component used as a directory in newpath is not,  in  fact,  a
77              directory.
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79       EPERM  The file system containing newpath does not support the creation
80              of symbolic links.
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82       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only file system.
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CONFORMING TO

85       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
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NOTES

88       No checking of oldpath is done.
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90       Deleting the name referred to by a symlink  will  actually  delete  the
91       file  (unless  it  also has other hard links).  If this behavior is not
92       desired, use link(2).
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COLOPHON

99       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
100       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
101       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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105Linux                             2013-01-27                        SYMLINK(2)