1.\" $OpenBSD: symlink.2,v 1.10 1999/06/29 14:10:26 aaron 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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 16.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 17.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 18.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 19.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 20.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 21.\" without specific prior written permission. 22.\" 23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 24.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 25.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 26.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 27.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 33.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 34.\" 35.\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 36.\" 37.Dd June 4, 1993 38.Dt SYMLINK 2 39.Os 40.Sh NAME 41.Nm symlink 42.Nd make symbolic link to a file 43.Sh SYNOPSIS 44.Fd #include <unistd.h> 45.Ft int 46.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48A symbolic link 49.Fa name2 50is created to 51.Fa name1 52.Pf ( Fa name2 53is the name of the 54file created, 55.Fa name1 56is the string 57used in creating the symbolic link). 58Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not 59be on the same file system, and the file specified by 60.Fa name1 61need not exist at all. 62.Sh RETURN VALUES 63Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. 64If an error occurs, the error code is stored in 65.Va errno 66and a \-1 value is returned. 67.Sh ERRORS 68The symbolic link succeeds unless: 69.Bl -tag -width Er 70.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 71A component of the 72.Fa name2 73prefix is not a directory. 74.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 75A component of a pathname exceeded 76.Dv {NAME_MAX} 77characters, or an entire path name exceeded 78.Dv {PATH_MAX} 79characters. 80.It Bq Er ENOENT 81The named file does not exist. 82.It Bq Er EACCES 83A component of the 84.Fa name2 85path prefix denies search permission. 86.It Bq Er ELOOP 87Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 88.It Bq Er EEXIST 89.Fa name2 90already exists. 91.It Bq Er EIO 92An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for 93.Fa name2 , 94or allocating the inode for 95.Fa name2 , 96or writing out the link contents of 97.Fa name2 . 98.It Bq Er EROFS 99The file 100.Fa name2 101would reside on a read-only file system. 102.It Bq Er ENOSPC 103The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 104cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 105system containing the directory. 106.It Bq Er ENOSPC 107The new symbolic link cannot be created because there 108is no space left on the file 109system that will contain the symbolic link. 110.It Bq Er ENOSPC 111There are no free inodes on the file system on which the 112symbolic link is being created. 113.It Bq Er EDQUOT 114The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 115is being placed cannot be extended because the 116user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 117containing the directory has been exhausted. 118.It Bq Er EDQUOT 119The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 120quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 121contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 122.It Bq Er EDQUOT 123The user's quota of inodes on the file system on 124which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 125.It Bq Er EIO 126An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. 127.It Bq Er EFAULT 128.Fa name1 129or 130.Fa name2 131points outside the process's allocated address space. 132.El 133.Sh SEE ALSO 134.Xr ln 1 , 135.Xr link 2 , 136.Xr readlink 2 , 137.Xr unlink 2 , 138.Xr symlink 7 139.Sh HISTORY 140The 141.Fn symlink 142function call appeared in 143.Bx 4.2 . 144