1.\" $OpenBSD: symlink.2,v 1.12 2007/05/31 19:19:34 jmc Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:38:34 cgd Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 5.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 16.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 17.\" without specific prior written permission. 18.\" 19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 29.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 30.\" 31.\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 32.\" 33.Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $ 34.Dt SYMLINK 2 35.Os 36.Sh NAME 37.Nm symlink 38.Nd make symbolic link to a file 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40.Fd #include <unistd.h> 41.Ft int 42.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44A symbolic link 45.Fa name2 46is created to 47.Fa name1 48.Pf ( Fa name2 49is the name of the 50file created, 51.Fa name1 52is the string 53used in creating the symbolic link). 54Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not 55be on the same file system, and the file specified by 56.Fa name1 57need not exist at all. 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 Er 66.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 67A component of the 68.Fa name2 69prefix is not a directory. 70.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 71A component of a pathname exceeded 72.Dv {NAME_MAX} 73characters, or an entire path name exceeded 74.Dv {PATH_MAX} 75characters. 76.It Bq Er ENOENT 77The named file does not exist. 78.It Bq Er EACCES 79A component of the 80.Fa name2 81path prefix denies search permission. 82.It Bq Er ELOOP 83Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 84.It Bq Er EEXIST 85.Fa name2 86already exists. 87.It Bq Er EIO 88An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for 89.Fa name2 , 90or allocating the inode for 91.Fa name2 , 92or writing out the link contents of 93.Fa name2 . 94.It Bq Er EROFS 95The file 96.Fa name2 97would reside on a read-only file system. 98.It Bq Er ENOSPC 99The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 100cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 101system containing the directory. 102.It Bq Er ENOSPC 103The new symbolic link cannot be created because there 104is no space left on the file 105system that will contain the symbolic link. 106.It Bq Er ENOSPC 107There are no free inodes on the file system on which the 108symbolic link is being created. 109.It Bq Er EDQUOT 110The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 111is being placed cannot be extended because the 112user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 113containing the directory has been exhausted. 114.It Bq Er EDQUOT 115The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 116quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 117contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 118.It Bq Er EDQUOT 119The user's quota of inodes on the file system on 120which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 121.It Bq Er EIO 122An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. 123.It Bq Er EFAULT 124.Fa name1 125or 126.Fa name2 127points outside the process's allocated address space. 128.El 129.Sh SEE ALSO 130.Xr ln 1 , 131.Xr link 2 , 132.Xr readlink 2 , 133.Xr unlink 2 , 134.Xr symlink 7 135.Sh HISTORY 136The 137.Fn symlink 138function call appeared in 139.Bx 4.2 . 140