xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/symlink.2 (revision 5f7096188587a2c7c95fa3c69b78e1ec9c7923d0)
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32.\"     from: @(#)symlink.2	6.6 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
33.\"	$Id: symlink.2,v 1.3 1993/11/25 00:39:52 jtc Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd March 10, 1991
36.Dt SYMLINK 2
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm symlink
40.Nd make symbolic link to a file
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Fd #include <unistd.h>
43.Ft int
44.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46A symbolic link
47.Fa name2
48is created to
49.Fa name1
50.Pf ( Fa name2
51is the name of the
52file created,
53.Fa name1
54is the string
55used in creating the symbolic link).
56Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not
57be on the same file system.
58.Sh RETURN VALUES
59Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned.
60If an error occurs, the error code is stored in
61.Va errno
62and a -1 value is returned.
63.Sh ERRORS
64The symbolic link succeeds unless:
65.Bl -tag -width ENAMETOO
66.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
67A component of the
68.Fa name2
69prefix is not a directory.
70.It Bq Er EINVAL
71Either
72.Fa name1
73or
74.Fa name2
75contains a character with the high-order bit set.
76.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
77A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
78or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
79.It Bq Er ENOENT
80The named file does not exist.
81.It Bq Er EACCES
82A component of the
83.Fa name2
84path prefix denies search permission.
85.It Bq Er ELOOP
86Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
87.It Bq Er EEXIST
88.Fa Name2
89already exists.
90.It Bq Er EIO
91An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for
92.Fa name2 ,
93or allocating the inode for
94.Fa name2 ,
95or writing out the link contents of
96.Fa name2 .
97.It Bq Er EROFS
98The file
99.Fa name2
100would reside on a read-only file system.
101.It Bq Er ENOSPC
102The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed
103cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
104system containing the directory.
105.It Bq Er ENOSPC
106The new symbolic link cannot be created because there
107there is no space left on the file
108system that will contain the symbolic link.
109.It Bq Er ENOSPC
110There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
111symbolic link is being created.
112.It Bq Er EDQUOT
113The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link
114is being placed cannot be extended because the
115user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
116containing the directory has been exhausted.
117.It Bq Er EDQUOT
118The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's
119quota of disk blocks on the file system that will
120contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.
121.It Bq Er EDQUOT
122The user's quota of inodes on the file system on
123which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.
124.It Bq Er EIO
125An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.
126.It Bq Er EFAULT
127.Fa Name1
128or
129.Fa name2
130points outside the process's allocated address space.
131.El
132.Sh SEE ALSO
133.Xr link 2 ,
134.Xr ln 1 ,
135.Xr unlink 2
136.Sh HISTORY
137The
138.Fn symlink
139function call appeared in
140.Bx 4.2 .
141