1.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.20 2010/05/31 12:16:20 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 June 4, 1993 33.Dt SYMLINK 2 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm symlink 37.Nd make symbolic link to a file 38.Sh LIBRARY 39.Lb libc 40.Sh SYNOPSIS 41.In unistd.h 42.Ft int 43.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45A symbolic link 46.Fa name2 47is created to 48.Fa name1 49.Pf ( Fa name2 50is the name of the 51file created, 52.Fa name1 53is the string 54used in creating the symbolic link). 55Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need neither 56to be on the same file system nor to exist. 57.Sh RETURN VALUES 58Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. 59If an error occurs, the error code is stored in 60.Va errno 61and a \-1 value is returned. 62.Sh ERRORS 63The symbolic link succeeds unless: 64.Bl -tag -width Er 65.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 66A component of the 67.Fa name2 68prefix is not a directory. 69.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 70A component of a pathname exceeded 71.Brq Dv NAME_MAX 72characters, or an entire path name exceeded 73.Brq Dv PATH_MAX 74characters. 75.It Bq Er ENOENT 76A component of the 77.Fa name2 78path does not exist. 79.It Bq Er EACCES 80A component of the 81.Fa name2 82path prefix denies search permission. 83.It Bq Er ELOOP 84Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 85.It Bq Er EEXIST 86.Fa name2 87already exists. 88.It Bq Er EIO 89An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for 90.Fa name2 , 91or allocating the inode for 92.Fa name2 , 93or writing out the link contents of 94.Fa name2 . 95.It Bq Er EROFS 96The file 97.Fa name2 98would reside on a read-only file system. 99.It Bq Er ENOSPC 100The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 101cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 102system containing the directory. 103.It Bq Er ENOSPC 104The new symbolic link cannot be created because there 105there is no space left on the file 106system that will contain the symbolic link. 107.It Bq Er ENOSPC 108There are no free inodes on the file system on which the 109symbolic link is being created. 110.It Bq Er EDQUOT 111The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 112is being placed cannot be extended because the 113user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 114containing the directory has been exhausted. 115.It Bq Er EDQUOT 116The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 117quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 118contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 119.It Bq Er EDQUOT 120The user's quota of inodes on the file system on 121which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 122.It Bq Er EIO 123An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. 124.It Bq Er EFAULT 125.Fa name1 126or 127.Fa name2 128points outside the process's allocated address space. 129.El 130.Sh SEE ALSO 131.Xr ln 1 , 132.Xr link 2 , 133.Xr readlink 2 , 134.Xr unlink 2 , 135.Xr symlink 7 136.Sh HISTORY 137The 138.Fn symlink 139function call appeared in 140.Bx 4.2 . 141