readlink(2)

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

6       readlink - read value of a symbolic link
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <unistd.h>
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11       ssize_t readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
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DESCRIPTION

14       readlink()  places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer
15       buf, which has size bufsiz.  readlink() does not append a null byte  to
16       buf.  It will truncate the contents (to a length of bufsiz characters),
17       in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.
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RETURN VALUE

20       The call returns the count of characters placed in  the  buffer  if  it
21       succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in errno.
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ERRORS

24       EACCES Search  permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
25              (See also path_resolution(2).)
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27       EFAULT buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.
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29       EINVAL bufsiz is not positive.
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31       EINVAL The named file is not a symbolic link.
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33       EIO    An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
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35       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links  were  encountered  in  translating  the
36              pathname.
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38       ENAMETOOLONG
39              A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.
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41       ENOENT The named file does not exist.
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43       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
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45       ENOTDIR
46              A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
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CONFORMING TO

49       4.4BSD (the readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.
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HISTORY

52       In  versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of
53       readlink() was declared as int.  Nowadays, the return type is  declared
54       as ssize_t, as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.
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