.\" $OpenBSD: symlink.2,v 1.17 2014/12/04 20:10:16 schwarze Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:38:34 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: December 4 2014 $ .Dt SYMLINK 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm symlink , .Nm symlinkat .Nd make symbolic link to a file .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft int .Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" .Fd #include .Fd #include .Ft int .Fn symlinkat "const char *name1" "int fd" "const char *name2" .Sh DESCRIPTION A symbolic link .Fa name2 is created to .Fa name1 .Pf ( Fa name2 is the name of the file created, .Fa 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, and the file specified by .Fa name1 need not exist at all. .Pp The .Fn symlinkat function is equivalent to .Fn symlink except that where .Fa name2 specifies a relative path, the newly created symbolic link is created relative to the directory associated with file descriptor .Fa fd instead of the current working directory. .Pp If .Fn symlinkat is passed the special value .Dv AT_FDCWD (defined in .In fcntl.h ) in the .Fa fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a call to .Fn symlink . .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. If an error occurs, the error code is stored in .Va errno and a \-1 value is returned. .Sh ERRORS The symbolic link succeeds unless: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the .Fa name2 prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded .Dv {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded .Dv {PATH_MAX} characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT The named file does not exist. .It Bq Er EACCES A component of the .Fa name2 path prefix denies search permission. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er EEXIST .Fa name2 already exists. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for .Fa name2 , or allocating the inode for .Fa name2 , or writing out the link contents of .Fa name2 . .It Bq Er EROFS The file .Fa name2 would reside on a read-only file system. .It Bq Er 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. .It Bq Er ENOSPC The new symbolic link cannot be created because there is no space left on the file system that will contain the symbolic link. .It Bq Er ENOSPC There are no free inodes on the file system on which the symbolic link is being created. .It Bq Er 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. .It Bq Er 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. .It Bq Er EDQUOT The user's quota of inodes on the file system on which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa name1 or .Fa name2 points outside the process's allocated address space. .El .Pp Additionally, .Fn symlinkat will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The .Fa name2 argument specifies a relative path and the .Fa fd argument is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR The .Fa name2 argument specifies a relative path and the .Fa fd argument is a valid file descriptor but it does not reference a directory. .It Bq Er EACCES The .Fa name2 argument specifies a relative path but search permission is denied for the directory which the .Fa fd file descriptor references. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ln 1 , .Xr link 2 , .Xr readlink 2 , .Xr unlink 2 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn symlink and .Fn symlinkat functions conform to .St -p1003.1-2008 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn symlink system call first appeared in .Bx 4.1c . The .Fn symlinkat system call has been available since .Ox 5.0 .