Name
symlink — make a new name for a file
Synopsis
#include <unistd.h>
int symlink( |
const char *oldpath, |
const char *newpath); |
![[Note]](../stylesheet/note.png) |
Note | ||
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DESCRIPTION
symlink() creates a symbolic
link named newpath
which contains the string oldpath.
Symbolic links are interpreted at run time as if the contents of the link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file or directory.
Symbolic links may contain .. path components, which (if used at the
start of the link) refer to the parent directories of that in
which the link resides.
A symbolic link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling link.
The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the
ownership is ignored when following the link, but is checked
when removal or renaming of the link is requested and the
link is in a directory with the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set.
If newpath exists
it will not be
overwritten.
RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, −1 is
returned, and errno is set
appropriately.
ERRORS
- EACCES
-
Write access to the directory containing
newpathis denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix ofnewpathdid not allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(7).) - EEXIST
-
newpathalready exists. - EFAULT
-
oldpathornewpathpoints outside your accessible address space. - EIO
-
An I/O error occurred.
- ELOOP
-
Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving
newpath. - ENAMETOOLONG
-
oldpathornewpathwas too long. - ENOENT
-
A directory component in
newpathdoes not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, oroldpathis the empty string. - ENOMEM
-
Insufficient kernel memory was available.
- ENOSPC
-
The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry.
- ENOTDIR
-
A component used as a directory in
newpathis not, in fact, a directory. - EPERM
-
The file system containing
newpathdoes not support the creation of symbolic links. - EROFS
-
newpathis on a read-only file system.
NOTES
No checking of oldpath is done.
Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the file (unless it also has other hard links). If this behavior is not desired, use link(2).
SEE ALSO
ln(1), lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), open(2), readlink(2), rename(2), symlinkat(2), unlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting
bugs, can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt; 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working professionally. Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. Modified 1993-07-24 by Rik Faith Modified 1996-04-26 by Nick Duffek <nsdbbc.com> Modified 1996-11-06 by Eric S. Raymond <esrthyrsus.com> Modified 1997-01-31 by Eric S. Raymond <esrthyrsus.com> Modified 2004-06-23 by Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com> |