xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/link.2 (revision d0fed6c87ddc40a8bffa6f99e7433ddfc864dd83)
1.\"	$NetBSD: link.2,v 1.9 1997/03/27 07:57:12 mikel 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 BSD 4
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm link
41.Nd make a hard file link
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Fd #include <unistd.h>
44.Ft int
45.Fn link "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn link
49function call
50atomically creates the specified directory entry (hard link)
51.Fa name2
52with the attributes of the underlying object pointed at by
53.Fa name1 .
54If the link is successful: the link count of the underlying object
55is incremented;
56.Fa name1
57and
58.Fa name2
59share equal access and rights
60to the
61underlying object.
62.Pp
63If
64.Fa name1
65is removed, the file
66.Fa name2
67is not deleted and the link count of the
68underlying object is
69decremented.
70.Pp
71.Fa Name1
72must exist for the hard link to
73succeed and
74both
75.Fa name1
76and
77.Fa name2
78must be in the same file system.
79.Fa Name1
80may not be a directory unless the caller is the super-user
81and the file system containing it supports linking to directories.
82.Sh RETURN VALUES
83Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise,
84a value of -1 is returned and
85.Va errno
86is set to indicate the error.
87.Sh ERRORS
88.Fn Link
89will fail and no link will be created if:
90.Bl -tag -width Er
91.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
92A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
93.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
94A component of a pathname exceeded
95.Dv {NAME_MAX}
96characters, or an entire path name exceeded
97.Dv {PATH_MAX}
98characters.
99.It Bq Er ENOENT
100A component of either path prefix does not exist.
101.It Bq Er EACCES
102A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
103.It Bq Er EACCES
104The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
105that denies write permission.
106.It Bq Er ELOOP
107Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating one of the pathnames.
108.It Bq Er ENOENT
109The file named by
110.Fa name1
111does not exist.
112.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
113The file system containing the file named by
114.Fa name1
115does not support links.
116.It Bq Er EMLINK
117The link count of the file named by
118.Fa name1
119would exceed
120.Dv {LINK_MAX}.
121.It Bq Er EEXIST
122The link named by
123.Fa name2
124does exist.
125.It Bq Er EPERM
126The file named by
127.Fa name1
128is a directory and the effective
129user ID is not super-user,
130or the file system containing the file does not permit the use of
131.Fn link
132on a directory.
133.It Bq Er EXDEV
134The link named by
135.Fa name2
136and the file named by
137.Fa name1
138are on different file systems.
139.It Bq Er ENOSPC
140The directory in which the entry for the new link is being placed
141cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
142system containing the directory.
143.ne 3v
144.It Bq Er EDQUOT
145The directory in which the entry for the new link
146is being placed cannot be extended because the
147user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
148containing the directory has been exhausted.
149.It Bq Er EIO
150An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
151the file system to make the directory entry.
152.It Bq Er EROFS
153The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
154system.
155.It Bq Er EFAULT
156One of the pathnames specified
157is outside the process's allocated address space.
158.El
159.Sh SEE ALSO
160.Xr symlink 2 ,
161.Xr unlink 2
162.Sh STANDARDS
163The
164.Fn link
165function conforms to
166.St -p1003.1-88 .
167