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1 .\" $NetBSD: link.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:34:01 cgd Exp $
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34 .\" @(#)link.2 8.3 (Berkeley) 1/12/94
35 .\"
36 .Dd January 12, 1994
37 .Dt LINK 2
38 .Os BSD 4
39 .Sh NAME
40 .Nm link
41 .Nd make a hard file link
42 .Sh SYNOPSIS
43 .Fd #include <unistd.h>
44 .Ft int
45 .Fo link
46 .Fa "const char *path1"
47 .Fa "const char *path2"
48 .Fc
49 .Sh DESCRIPTION
50 The
51 .Fn link
52 function call
53 atomically creates the specified directory entry (hard link)
54 .Fa path2
55 with the attributes of the underlying object pointed at by
56 .Fa path1 .
57 If the link is successful,
58 the link count of the underlying object is incremented;
59 .Fa path1
60 and
61 .Fa path2
62 share equal access and rights
63 to the
64 underlying object.
65 .Pp
66 If
67 .Fa path1
68 is removed, the file
69 .Fa path2
70 is not deleted and the link count of the
71 underlying object is
72 decremented.
73 .Pp
74 In order for the system call to succeed,
75 .Fa path1
76 must exist and both
77 .Fa path1
78 and
79 .Fa path2
80 must be in the same file system.
81 As mandated by POSIX.1,
82 .Fa path1
83 may not be a directory.
84 .Sh RETURN VALUES
85 Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise,
86 a value of -1 is returned and
87 .Va errno
88 is set to indicate the error.
89 .Sh ERRORS
90 .Fn Link
91 will fail and no link will be created if:
92 .Bl -tag -width Er
93 .\" ==========
94 .It Bq Er EACCES
95 A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
96 .\" ==========
97 .It Bq Er EACCES
98 The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
99 that denies write permission.
100 .\" ==========
101 .It Bq Er EACCES
102 The current process cannot access the existing file.
103 .\" ==========
104 .It Bq Er EDQUOT
105 The directory in which the entry for the new link
106 is being placed cannot be extended because the
107 user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
108 containing the directory has been exhausted.
109 .\" ==========
110 .It Bq Er EEXIST
111 The link named by
112 .Fa path2
113 already exists.
114 .\" ==========
115 .It Bq Er EFAULT
116 One of the pathnames specified
117 is outside the process's allocated address space.
118 .\" ==========
119 .It Bq Er EIO
120 An I/O error occurs while reading from or writing to
121 the file system to make the directory entry.
122 .\" ==========
123 .It Bq Er ELOOP
124 Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating one of the pathnames.
125 This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.
126 .\" ==========
127 .It Bq Er EMLINK
128 The file already has {LINK_MAX} links.
129 .\" ==========
130 .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
131 A component of a pathname exceeds
132 .Dv {NAME_MAX}
133 characters, or an entire path name exceeded
134 .Dv {PATH_MAX}
135 characters.
136 .\" ==========
137 .It Bq Er ENOENT
138 A component of either path prefix does not exist.
139 .\" ==========
140 .It Bq Er ENOENT
141 The file named by
142 .Fa path1
143 does not exist.
144 .\" ==========
145 .It Bq Er ENOSPC
146 The directory in which the entry for the new link is being placed
147 cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
148 system containing the directory.
149 .\" ==========
150 .It Bq Er ENOTDIR
151 A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
152 .\" ==========
153 .It Bq Er EPERM
154 The file named by
155 .Fa path1
156 is a directory.
157 .\" ==========
158 .It Bq Er EROFS
159 The requested link requires writing in a directory
160 on a read-only file system.
161 .\" ==========
162 .It Bq Er EXDEV
163 The link named by
164 .Fa path2
165 and the file named by
166 .Fa path1
167 are on different file systems.
168 .El
169 .Sh SEE ALSO
170 .Xr symlink 2 ,
171 .Xr unlink 2
172 .Sh STANDARDS
173 The
174 .Fn link
175 function is expected to conform to
176 .St -p1003.1-88 .