Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
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@(#)readlink.2 6.1 (Berkeley) 05/15/85

C 5 readlink - read value of a symbolic link

cc = readlink(path, buf, bufsiz)
int cc;
char *path, *buf;
int bufsiz;

Readlink places the contents of the symbolic link name in the buffer buf which has size bufsiz . The contents of the link are not null terminated when returned. The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer if it succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the global variable errno. Readlink will fail and the file mode will be unchanged if:

15 [EPERM] The path argument contained a byte with the high-order bit set.

15 [ENOENT] The pathname was too long.

15 [ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

15 [ENOENT] The named file does not exist.

15 [ENXIO] The named file is not a symbolic link.

15 [EACCES] Search permission is denied on a component of the path prefix.

15 [EPERM] The effective user ID does not match the owner of the file and the effective user ID is not the super-user.

15 [EINVAL] The named file is not a symbolic link.

15 [EFAULT] Buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.

15 [ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2)