NAME
symlink - make a new name for a file
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int symlink(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
symlink(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
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
renaming of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with
the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) 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
EACCES Write access to the directory containing newpath is denied, or
one of the directories in the path prefix of newpath did not
allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(7).)
EEXIST newpath already exists.
EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.
EIO An I/O error occurred.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.
ENAMETOOLONG
oldpath or newpath was too long.
ENOENT A directory component in newpath does not exist or is a dangling
symbolic link, or oldpath is the empty string.
ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.
ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory
entry.
ENOTDIR
A component used as a directory in newpath is not, in fact, a
directory.
EPERM The file system containing newpath does not support the creation
of symbolic links.
EROFS newpath is on a read-only file system.
CONFORMING TO
SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
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 behavior is not
desired, use link(2).
SEE ALSO
ln(1), lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), open(2), readlink(2), rename(2),
symlinkat(2), unlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.