.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:38:34 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt SYMLINK 2 .Os BSD 4.2 .Sh NAME .Nm symlink , .Nm symlinkat .Nd make symbolic link to a file .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft int .Fo symlink .Fa "const char *path1" .Fa "const char *path2" .Fc .Ft int .Fn symlinkat "const char *name1" "int fd" "const char *name2" .Sh DESCRIPTION A symbolic link .Fa path2 is created to .Fa path1 .Pf ( Fa path2 is the name of the file created, .Fa path1 is the string used in creating the symbolic link). Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on the same file system. .Pp The .Fn symlinkat system call is equivalent to .Fn symlink except in the case where .Fa name2 specifies a relative path. In this case the symbolic link is created relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor .Fa fd instead of the current working directory. If .Fn symlinkat is passed the special value .Dv AT_FDCWD in the .Fa fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a call to .Fn symlink . .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. If an error occurs, the error code is stored in .Va errno and a -1 value is returned. .Sh ERRORS The symbolic link succeeds unless: .Bl -tag -width Er .\" =========== .It Bq Er EACCES Write permission is denied in the directory where the symbolic link is being created. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EACCES A component of the .Fa path2 path prefix denies search permission. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EDQUOT The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks on the file system containing the directory has been exhausted. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EDQUOT The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's quota of disk blocks on the file system that will contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EDQUOT The user's quota of inodes on the file system on which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EEXIST .Fa Path2 already exists. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa Path1 or .Fa path2 points outside the process's allocated address space. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry for .Fa path2 , or allocating the inode for .Fa path2 , or writing out the link contents of .Fa path2 . .\" =========== .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeds .Dv {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeds .Dv {PATH_MAX} characters. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENOENT A component of .Fa path2 does not name an existing file or .Fa path2 is an empty string. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENOSPC The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file system containing the directory. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENOSPC The new symbolic link cannot be created because there there is no space left on the file system that will contain the symbolic link. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENOSPC There are no free inodes on the file system on which the symbolic link is being created. .\" =========== .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the .Fa path2 prefix is not a directory. .\" =========== .It Bq Er EROFS The file .Fa path2 would reside on a read-only file system. .El .Pp In addition to the errors returned by the .Fn symlink , the .Fn symlinkat may fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The .Fa name2 argument does not specify an absolute path and the .Fa fd argument is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for searching. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR The .Fa name2 argument is not an absolute path and .Fa fd is neither .Dv AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a directory. .It Bq Eq EILSEQ The filename does not match the encoding rules. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ln 1 , .Xr link 2 , .Xr unlink 2 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn symlinkat system call is expected to conform to POSIX.1-2008 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn symlink function call appeared in .Bx 4.2 . The .Fn symlinkat system call appeared in OS X 10.10