NAME
symlink, symlinkat - make symbolic link to a file
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
symlink(const char *name1, const char *name2);
int
symlinkat(const char *name1, int fd, const char *name2);
DESCRIPTION
A symbolic link name2 is created to name1 (name2 is the name of the file
created, name1 is the string used in creating the symbolic link). Either
name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on the same
file system.
The symlinkat() system call is equivalent to symlink() except in the case
where name2 specifies a relative path. In this case the symbolic link is
created relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd
instead of the current working directory. If symlinkat() is passed the
special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory
is used and the behavior is identical to a call to symlink().
RETURN VALUES
The symlink() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the
value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the
error.
ERRORS
The symbolic link succeeds unless:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the name2 path prefix is not a
directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of the name2 pathname exceeded 255
characters, or the entire length of either path name
exceeded 1023 characters.
[ENOENT] A component of the name2 path prefix does not exist.
[EACCES] A component of the name2 path prefix denies search
permission, or write permission is denied on the
parent directory of the file to be created.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in
translating the name2 path name.
[EEXIST] The path name pointed at by the name2 argument already
exists.
[EPERM] The parent directory of the file named by name2 has
its immutable flag set, see the chflags(2) manual page
for more information.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry
for name2, or allocating the inode for name2, or
writing out the link contents of name2.
[EROFS] The file name2 would reside on a read-only file
system.
[ENOSPC] The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic
link is being placed cannot be extended because there
is no space left on the file system containing the
directory.
[ENOSPC] The new symbolic link cannot be created because there
is no space left on the file system that will contain
the symbolic link.
[ENOSPC] There are no free inodes on the file system on which
the symbolic link is being created.
[EDQUOT] The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic
link is being placed cannot be extended because the
user’s quota of disk blocks on the file system
containing the directory has been exhausted.
[EDQUOT] The new symbolic link cannot be created because the
user’s quota of disk blocks on the file system that
will contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.
[EDQUOT] The user’s quota of inodes on the file system on which
the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry
or allocating the inode.
[EFAULT] The name1 or name2 argument points outside the
process’s allocated address space.
In addition to the errors returned by the symlink(), the symlinkat() may
fail if:
[EBADF] The name2 argument does not specify an absolute path
and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid
file descriptor open for searching.
[ENOTDIR] The name2 argument is not an absolute path and fd is
neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with
a directory.
SEE ALSO
ln(1), chflags(2), link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), unlink(2), symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The symlinkat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2
specification.
HISTORY
The symlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD. The symlinkat() system
call appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.