xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/link.2 (revision 4472dbe5e3bd91ef2540bada7a7ca7384627ff9b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: link.2,v 1.13 1999/12/02 21:42:37 kleink Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)link.2	8.3 (Berkeley) 1/12/94
35.\"
36.Dd January 12, 1994
37.Dt LINK 2
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm link
41.Nd make a hard file link
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include <unistd.h>
46.Ft int
47.Fn link "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fn link
51function call
52atomically creates the specified directory entry (hard link)
53.Fa name2
54with the attributes of the underlying object pointed at by
55.Fa name1 .
56If the link is successful: the link count of the underlying object
57is incremented;
58.Fa name1
59and
60.Fa name2
61share equal access and rights
62to the
63underlying object.
64.Pp
65If
66.Fa name1
67is removed, the file
68.Fa name2
69is not deleted and the link count of the
70underlying object is
71decremented.
72.Pp
73.Fa name1
74must exist for the hard link to
75succeed and
76both
77.Fa name1
78and
79.Fa name2
80must be in the same file system.
81.Fa name1
82may not be a directory unless the caller is the super-user
83and the file system containing it supports linking to directories.
84.Sh RETURN VALUES
85Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise,
86a value of -1 is returned and
87.Va errno
88is set to indicate the error.
89.Sh ERRORS
90.Fn link
91will fail and no link will be created if:
92.Bl -tag -width Er
93.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
94A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
95.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
96A component of a pathname exceeded
97.Dv {NAME_MAX}
98characters, or an entire path name exceeded
99.Dv {PATH_MAX}
100characters.
101.It Bq Er ENOENT
102A component of either path prefix does not exist.
103.It Bq Er EACCES
104A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
105.It Bq Er EACCES
106The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
107that denies write permission.
108.It Bq Er ELOOP
109Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating one of the pathnames.
110.It Bq Er ENOENT
111The file named by
112.Fa name1
113does not exist.
114.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
115The file system containing the file named by
116.Fa name1
117does not support links.
118.It Bq Er EMLINK
119The link count of the file named by
120.Fa name1
121would exceed
122.Dv {LINK_MAX}.
123.It Bq Er EEXIST
124The link named by
125.Fa name2
126does exist.
127.It Bq Er EPERM
128The file named by
129.Fa name1
130is a directory and the effective
131user ID is not super-user,
132or the file system containing the file does not permit the use of
133.Fn link
134on a directory.
135.It Bq Er EXDEV
136The link named by
137.Fa name2
138and the file named by
139.Fa name1
140are on different file systems.
141.It Bq Er ENOSPC
142The directory in which the entry for the new link is being placed
143cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
144system containing the directory.
145.ne 3v
146.It Bq Er EDQUOT
147The directory in which the entry for the new link
148is being placed cannot be extended because the
149user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
150containing the directory has been exhausted.
151.It Bq Er EIO
152An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
153the file system to make the directory entry.
154.It Bq Er EROFS
155The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
156system.
157.It Bq Er EFAULT
158One of the pathnames specified
159is outside the process's allocated address space.
160.El
161.Sh SEE ALSO
162.Xr symlink 2 ,
163.Xr unlink 2
164.Sh STANDARDS
165The
166.Fn link
167function conforms to
168.St -p1003.1-90 .
169