SYMLINK(2)                                          Linux Programmer's Manual                                         SYMLINK(2)



NAME
       symlink - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int symlink(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       symlink(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

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 fol-
       lowed 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 newpath is denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix of new-
              path did not allow search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              oldpath or newpath was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in newpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or oldpath is 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 newpath is not, in fact, a directory.

       EPERM  The file system containing newpath does not support the creation of symbolic links.

       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

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), sym-
       link(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.25 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/.



Linux                                                      2007-07-26                                                 SYMLINK(2)