1SYMLINK(7)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                SYMLINK(7)
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NAME

6       symlink - symbolic link handling
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DESCRIPTION

9       Symbolic  links  are files that act as pointers to other files.  To un‐
10       derstand their behavior, you must first understand how hard links work.
11
12       A hard link to a file is indistinguishable from the original  file  be‐
13       cause it is a reference to the object underlying the original filename.
14       (To be precise: each of the hard links to a file is a reference to  the
15       same inode number, where an inode number is an index into the inode ta‐
16       ble, which contains metadata about all  files  on  a  filesystem.   See
17       stat(2).)  Changes to a file are independent of the name used to refer‐
18       ence the file.  Hard links may not refer to directories (to prevent the
19       possibility  of  loops  within the filesystem tree, which would confuse
20       many programs) and may not refer to files on different filesystems (be‐
21       cause inode numbers are not unique across filesystems).
22
23       A  symbolic  link is a special type of file whose contents are a string
24       that is the pathname of another  file,  the  file  to  which  the  link
25       refers.   (The  contents  of  a  symbolic  link can be read using read‐
26       link(2).)  In other words, a symbolic link  is  a  pointer  to  another
27       name, and not to an underlying object.  For this reason, symbolic links
28       may refer to directories and may cross filesystem boundaries.
29
30       There is no requirement that the pathname referred  to  by  a  symbolic
31       link should exist.  A symbolic link that refers to a pathname that does
32       not exist is said to be a dangling link.
33
34       Because a symbolic link  and  its  referenced  object  coexist  in  the
35       filesystem  name  space,  confusion can arise in distinguishing between
36       the link itself and the referenced object.  On historical systems, com‐
37       mands  and system calls adopted their own link-following conventions in
38       a somewhat ad-hoc fashion.  Rules for a more uniform approach, as  they
39       are  implemented  on Linux and other systems, are outlined here.  It is
40       important that site-local applications also conform to these rules,  so
41       that the user interface can be as consistent as possible.
42
43   Magic links
44       There  is a special class of symbolic-link-like objects known as "magic
45       links", which can be found in certain pseudofilesystems such as proc(5)
46       (examples include /proc/[pid]/exe and /proc/[pid]/fd/*).  Unlike normal
47       symbolic links, magic links are not  resolved  through  pathname-expan‐
48       sion,  but  instead act as direct references to the kernel's own repre‐
49       sentation of a file handle.  As such, these magic links allow users  to
50       access  files which cannot be referenced with normal paths (such as un‐
51       linked files still referenced by a running program ).
52
53       Because they can  bypass  ordinary  mount_namespaces(7)-based  restric‐
54       tions,  magic  links  have  been  used as attack vectors in various ex‐
55       ploits.
56
57   Symbolic link ownership, permissions, and timestamps
58       The owner and group of an existing symbolic link can be  changed  using
59       lchown(2).  The only time that the ownership of a symbolic link matters
60       is when the link is being removed or renamed in a  directory  that  has
61       the sticky bit set (see stat(2)).
62
63       The last access and last modification timestamps of a symbolic link can
64       be changed using utimensat(2) or lutimes(3).
65
66       On Linux, the permissions of an ordinary symbolic link are not used  in
67       any  operations; the permissions are always 0777 (read, write, and exe‐
68       cute for all user categories), and can't be changed.
69
70       However, magic links do not follow this rule.  They can have a non-0777
71       mode, though this mode is not currently used in any permission checks.
72
73   Obtaining a file descriptor that refers to a symbolic link
74       Using  the  combination  of  the O_PATH and O_NOFOLLOW flags to open(2)
75       yields a file descriptor that can be passed as the  dirfd  argument  in
76       system  calls  such as fstatat(2), fchownat(2), fchmodat(2), linkat(2),
77       and readlinkat(2), in order to operate  on  the  symbolic  link  itself
78       (rather than the file to which it refers).
79
80       By  default  (i.e., if the AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW flag is not specified), if
81       name_to_handle_at(2) is applied to a symbolic link, it yields a  handle
82       for  the  symbolic link (rather than the file to which it refers).  One
83       can then obtain a file descriptor for the symbolic  link  (rather  than
84       the  file to which it refers) by specifying the O_PATH flag in a subse‐
85       quent call to open_by_handle_at(2).  Again, that file descriptor can be
86       used in the aforementioned system calls to operate on the symbolic link
87       itself.
88
89   Handling of symbolic links by system calls and commands
90       Symbolic links are handled either by operating on the link  itself,  or
91       by  operating  on  the  object  referred to by the link.  In the latter
92       case, an application or system call is said to follow the  link.   Sym‐
93       bolic  links may refer to other symbolic links, in which case the links
94       are dereferenced until an object that is not a symbolic link is  found,
95       a symbolic link that refers to a file which does not exist is found, or
96       a loop is detected.  (Loop detection is done by placing an upper  limit
97       on  the  number  of links that may be followed, and an error results if
98       this limit is exceeded.)
99
100       There are three separate areas that need to be discussed.  They are  as
101       follows:
102
103       1. Symbolic links used as filename arguments for system calls.
104
105       2. Symbolic links specified as command-line arguments to utilities that
106          are not traversing a file tree.
107
108       3. Symbolic links encountered by utilities that are traversing  a  file
109          tree (either specified on the command line or encountered as part of
110          the file hierarchy walk).
111
112       Before describing the treatment of symbolic links by system  calls  and
113       commands,  we  require  some terminology.  Given a pathname of the form
114       a/b/c, the part preceding the final slash (i.e.,  a/b)  is  called  the
115       dirname  component, and the part following the final slash (i.e., c) is
116       called the basename component.
117
118   Treatment of symbolic links in system calls
119       The first area is symbolic links used as filename arguments for  system
120       calls.
121
122       The  treatment  of  symbolic links within a pathname passed to a system
123       call is as follows:
124
125       1. Within the dirname component of a pathname, symbolic links  are  al‐
126          ways  followed  in nearly every system call.  (This is also true for
127          commands.)  The one exception is openat2(2),  which  provides  flags
128          that  can  be used to explicitly prevent following of symbolic links
129          in the dirname component.
130
131       2. Except as noted below, all system calls follow symbolic links in the
132          basename component of a pathname.  For example, if there were a sym‐
133          bolic link slink which pointed to a file  named  afile,  the  system
134          call  open("slink"  ...) would return a file descriptor referring to
135          the file afile.
136
137       Various system calls do not follow links in the basename component of a
138       pathname,   and  operate  on  the  symbolic  link  itself.   They  are:
139       lchown(2), lgetxattr(2), llistxattr(2), lremovexattr(2),  lsetxattr(2),
140       lstat(2), readlink(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), and unlink(2).
141
142       Certain  other  system  calls  optionally  follow symbolic links in the
143       basename component of a pathname.  They are: faccessat(2), fchownat(2),
144       fstatat(2),   linkat(2),   name_to_handle_at(2),   open(2),  openat(2),
145       open_by_handle_at(2), and utimensat(2); see their manual pages for  de‐
146       tails.  Because remove(3) is an alias for unlink(2), that library func‐
147       tion also does not follow symbolic links.  When rmdir(2) is applied  to
148       a symbolic link, it fails with the error ENOTDIR.
149
150       link(2)  warrants  special  discussion.   POSIX.1-2001  specifies  that
151       link(2) should dereference oldpath if it is a symbolic link.   However,
152       Linux  does  not  do  this.   (By default, Solaris is the same, but the
153       POSIX.1-2001 specified behavior can be obtained with suitable  compiler
154       options.)   POSIX.1-2008  changed the specification to allow either be‐
155       havior in an implementation.
156
157   Commands not traversing a file tree
158       The second area is symbolic links, specified as  command-line  filename
159       arguments, to commands which are not traversing a file tree.
160
161       Except as noted below, commands follow symbolic links named as command-
162       line arguments.  For example, if there were a symbolic link slink which
163       pointed  to a file named afile, the command cat slink would display the
164       contents of the file afile.
165
166       It is important to realize that this rule includes commands  which  may
167       optionally  traverse file trees; for example, the command chown file is
168       included in this rule, while the command chown -R file, which  performs
169       a  tree traversal, is not.  (The latter is described in the third area,
170       below.)
171
172       If it is explicitly intended that the command operate on  the  symbolic
173       link  instead of following the symbolic link—for example, it is desired
174       that chown slink change the  ownership  of  the  file  that  slink  is,
175       whether it is a symbolic link or not—then the -h option should be used.
176       In the above example, chown root slink would change  the  ownership  of
177       the  file  referred to by slink, while chown -h root slink would change
178       the ownership of slink itself.
179
180       There are some exceptions to this rule:
181
182       * The mv(1) and rm(1) commands do not follow symbolic  links  named  as
183         arguments,  but  respectively  attempt  to  rename  and  delete them.
184         (Note, if the symbolic link references a file via  a  relative  path,
185         moving  it  to another directory may very well cause it to stop work‐
186         ing, since the path may no longer be correct.)
187
188       * The ls(1) command is also an exception to this rule.  For compatibil‐
189         ity  with  historic systems (when ls(1) is not doing a tree walk—that
190         is, -R option is not specified), the ls(1) command  follows  symbolic
191         links  named  as arguments if the -H or -L option is specified, or if
192         the -F, -d, or -l options are not specified.  (The ls(1)  command  is
193         the only command where the -H and -L options affect its behavior even
194         though it is not doing a walk of a file tree.)
195
196       * The file(1) command is also an exception to this rule.   The  file(1)
197         command  does not follow symbolic links named as argument by default.
198         The file(1) command does follow symbolic links named as  argument  if
199         the -L option is specified.
200
201   Commands traversing a file tree
202       The following commands either optionally or always traverse file trees:
203       chgrp(1), chmod(1), chown(1), cp(1),  du(1),  find(1),  ls(1),  pax(1),
204       rm(1), and tar(1).
205
206       It  is  important  to realize that the following rules apply equally to
207       symbolic links encountered during the file tree traversal and  symbolic
208       links listed as command-line arguments.
209
210       The  first  rule  applies  to symbolic links that reference files other
211       than directories.  Operations that apply to  symbolic  links  are  per‐
212       formed on the links themselves, but otherwise the links are ignored.
213
214       The  command  rm -r  slink  directory will remove slink, as well as any
215       symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal of directory,  because
216       symbolic  links  may be removed.  In no case will rm(1) affect the file
217       referred to by slink.
218
219       The second rule applies to symbolic links that  refer  to  directories.
220       Symbolic links that refer to directories are never followed by default.
221       This is often referred to as a "physical" walk, as opposed to a  "logi‐
222       cal"  walk  (where  symbolic  links  that refer to directories are fol‐
223       lowed).
224
225       Certain conventions are (should be) followed as consistently as  possi‐
226       ble by commands that perform file tree walks:
227
228       * A  command can be made to follow any symbolic links named on the com‐
229         mand line, regardless of the type of file they reference, by specify‐
230         ing  the -H (for "half-logical") flag.  This flag is intended to make
231         the command-line name space look like the logical name space.  (Note,
232         for  commands that do not always do file tree traversals, the -H flag
233         will be ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.)
234
235         For example, the command chown -HR user slink will traverse the  file
236         hierarchy  rooted  in  the file pointed to by slink.  Note, the -H is
237         not the same as the previously discussed -h flag.  The -H flag causes
238         symbolic  links  specified on the command line to be dereferenced for
239         the purposes of both the action to be performed and  the  tree  walk,
240         and  it is as if the user had specified the name of the file to which
241         the symbolic link pointed.
242
243       * A command can be made to follow any symbolic links named on the  com‐
244         mand  line, as well as any symbolic links encountered during the tra‐
245         versal, regardless of the type of file they reference, by  specifying
246         the  -L  (for "logical") flag.  This flag is intended to make the en‐
247         tire name space look like the logical name space.   (Note,  for  com‐
248         mands that do not always do file tree traversals, the -L flag will be
249         ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.)
250
251         For example, the command chown -LR user slink will change  the  owner
252         of  the  file  referred to by slink.  If slink refers to a directory,
253         chown will traverse the file hierarchy rooted in the  directory  that
254         it references.  In addition, if any symbolic links are encountered in
255         any file tree that chown traverses, they will be treated in the  same
256         fashion as slink.
257
258       * A  command  can be made to provide the default behavior by specifying
259         the -P (for "physical") flag.  This flag is intended to make the  en‐
260         tire name space look like the physical name space.
261
262       For  commands  that  do not by default do file tree traversals, the -H,
263       -L, and -P flags are ignored if the -R flag is not also specified.   In
264       addition,  you  may  specify the -H, -L, and -P options more than once;
265       the last one specified determines the command's behavior.  This is  in‐
266       tended  to permit you to alias commands to behave one way or the other,
267       and then override that behavior on the command line.
268
269       The ls(1) and rm(1) commands have exceptions to these rules:
270
271       * The rm(1) command operates on the symbolic link, and not the file  it
272         references,  and  therefore never follows a symbolic link.  The rm(1)
273         command does not support the -H, -L, or -P options.
274
275       * To maintain compatibility with historic systems,  the  ls(1)  command
276         acts  a  little differently.  If you do not specify the -F, -d, or -l
277         options, ls(1) will follow symbolic links specified  on  the  command
278         line.  If the -L flag is specified, ls(1) follows all symbolic links,
279         regardless of their type, whether specified on the  command  line  or
280         encountered in the tree walk.
281

SEE ALSO

283       chgrp(1),  chmod(1),  find(1),  ln(1),  ls(1),  mv(1), namei(1), rm(1),
284       lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), rename(2),  symlink(2),  un‐
285       link(2), utimensat(2), lutimes(3), path_resolution(7)
286

COLOPHON

288       This  page  is  part of release 5.12 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
289       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
290       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
291       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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295Linux                             2021-03-22                        SYMLINK(7)
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