SYMLINK(2) Linux Programmer's Manual SYMLINK(2)NAMEsymlink - make a new name for a file
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int symlink(const char *target, const char *linkpath);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
symlink():
_BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED ||
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
DESCRIPTIONsymlink() creates a symbolic link named linkpath which contains the
string target.
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 renam‐
ing of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with the
sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set.
If linkpath 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 linkpath is denied, or
one of the directories in the path prefix of linkpath did not
allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(7).)
EDQUOT The user's quota of resources on the filesystem has been
exhausted. The resources could be inodes or disk blocks,
depending on the filesystem implementation.
EEXIST linkpath already exists.
EFAULT target or linkpath points outside your accessible address space.
EIO An I/O error occurred.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving linkpath.
ENAMETOOLONG
target or linkpath was too long.
ENOENT A directory component in linkpath does not exist or is a dan‐
gling symbolic link, or target 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 linkpath is not, in fact, a
directory.
EPERM The filesystem containing linkpath does not support the creation
of symbolic links.
EROFS linkpath is on a read-only filesystem.
CONFORMING TO
SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
NOTES
No checking of target 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 ALSOln(1), lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), open(2), readlink(2), rename(2),
symlinkat(2), unlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)COLOPHON
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be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2013-10-30 SYMLINK(2)