1.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.26 2013/07/29 11:40:04 njoly Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 31.\" 32.Dd July 29, 2013 33.Dt SYMLINK 2 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm symlink , 37.Nm symlinkat 38.Nd make symbolic link to a file 39.Sh LIBRARY 40.Lb libc 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.In unistd.h 43.Ft int 44.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" 45.Ft int 46.Fn symlinkat "const char *name1" "int fd" "const char *name2" 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48A symbolic link 49.Fa name2 50is created to 51.Fa name1 52.Pf ( Fa name2 53is the name of the 54file created, 55.Fa name1 56is the string 57used in creating the symbolic link). 58Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need neither 59to be on the same file system nor to exist. 60.Pp 61.Fn symlinkat 62works the same way as 63.Fn symlink 64except if 65.Fa path2 66is relative. 67In that case, it is looked up from a directory whose file 68descriptor was passed as 69.Fa fd . 70Search permission is required on this directory. 71.\" (These alternatives await a decision about the semantics of O_SEARCH) 72.\" Search permission is required on this directory 73.\" except if 74.\" .Fa fd 75.\" was opened with the 76.\" .Dv O_SEARCH 77.\" flag. 78.\" - or - 79.\" This file descriptor must have been opened with the 80.\" .Dv O_SEARCH 81.\" flag. 82.Fa fd 83can be set to 84.Dv AT_FDCWD 85in order to specify the current directory. 86.Sh RETURN VALUES 87.Rv -std symlink symlinkat 88.Sh ERRORS 89.Fn symlink 90and 91.Fn symlinkat 92will fail and no link will be created if: 93.Bl -tag -width Er 94.It Bq Er EACCES 95A component of the 96.Fa name2 97path prefix denies search permission. 98.It Bq Er EDQUOT 99The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 100is being placed cannot be extended because the 101user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 102containing the directory has been exhausted. 103Or, the new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 104quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 105contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 106Or, the user's quota of inodes on the file system on 107which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 108.It Bq Er EEXIST 109.Fa name2 110already exists. 111.It Bq Er EFAULT 112.Fa name1 113or 114.Fa name2 115points outside the process's allocated address space. 116.It Bq Er EIO 117An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for 118.Fa name2 , 119or allocating the inode for 120.Fa name2 , 121or writing out the link contents of 122.Fa name2 . 123Or, an I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. 124.It Bq Er ELOOP 125Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 126.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 127A component of a pathname exceeded 128.Brq Dv NAME_MAX 129characters, or an entire path name exceeded 130.Brq Dv PATH_MAX 131characters. 132.It Bq Er ENOENT 133A component of the 134.Fa name2 135path does not exist. 136.It Bq Er ENOSPC 137The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 138cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 139system containing the directory. 140Or, the new symbolic link cannot be created because there 141there is no space left on the file 142system that will contain the symbolic link. 143Or, there are no free inodes on the file system on which the 144symbolic link is being created. 145.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 146A component of the 147.Fa name2 148prefix is not a directory. 149.It Bq Er EROFS 150The file 151.Fa name2 152would reside on a read-only file system. 153.El 154.Pp 155In addition, 156.Fn symlinkat 157will fail if: 158.Bl -tag -width Er 159.It Bq Er EBADF 160.Fa name2 161does not specify an absolute path and 162.Fa fd 163is neither 164.Dv AT_FDCWD 165nor a valid file descriptor open for reading or searching. 166.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 167.Fa name2 168is not an absolute path and 169.Fa fd 170is a file descriptor associated with a non-directory file. 171.El 172.Sh SEE ALSO 173.Xr ln 1 , 174.Xr link 2 , 175.Xr readlink 2 , 176.Xr unlink 2 , 177.Xr symlink 7 178.Sh STANDARDS 179The 180.Fn symlink 181function conforms to 182.St -p1003.1-90 . 183.Fn symlinkat 184conforms to 185.St -p1003.1-2008 . 186.Sh HISTORY 187The 188.Fn symlink 189function call appeared in 190.Bx 4.2 . 191