xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/sys/link.2 (revision 984263bc)
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32.\"     @(#)link.2	8.3 (Berkeley) 1/12/94
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/link.2,v 1.11.2.7 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd March 5, 1999
36.Dt LINK 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm link
40.Nd make a hard file link
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In unistd.h
45.Ft int
46.Fn link "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Fn link
50function call
51atomically creates the specified directory entry (hard link)
52.Fa name2
53with the attributes of the underlying object pointed at by
54.Fa name1 .
55If the link is successful: the link count of the underlying object
56is incremented;
57.Fa name1
58and
59.Fa name2
60share equal access and rights
61to the
62underlying object.
63.Pp
64If
65.Fa name1
66is removed, the file
67.Fa name2
68is not deleted and the link count of the
69underlying object is
70decremented.
71.Pp
72.Fa Name1
73must exist for the hard link to
74succeed and
75both
76.Fa name1
77and
78.Fa name2
79must be in the same file system.
80.Fa name1
81may not be a directory.
82.Sh RETURN VALUES
83.Rv -std link
84.Sh ERRORS
85.Fn Link
86will fail and no link will be created if:
87.Bl -tag -width Er
88.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
89A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
90.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
91A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
92or entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
93.It Bq Er ENOENT
94A component of either path prefix does not exist.
95.It Bq Er EOPNOTSUPP
96The file system containing the file named by
97.Fa name1
98does not support links.
99.It Bq Er EMLINK
100The link count of the file named by
101.Fa name1
102would exceed 32767.
103.It Bq Er EACCES
104A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
105.It Bq Er EACCES
106The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
107that denies write permission.
108.It Bq Er ELOOP
109Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating one of the pathnames.
110.It Bq Er ENOENT
111The file named by
112.Fa name1
113does not exist.
114.It Bq Er EEXIST
115The link named by
116.Fa name2
117does exist.
118.It Bq Er EPERM
119The file named by
120.Fa name1
121is a directory.
122.It Bq Er EXDEV
123The link named by
124.Fa name2
125and the file named by
126.Fa name1
127are on different file systems.
128.It Bq Er ENOSPC
129The directory in which the entry for the new link is being placed
130cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
131system containing the directory.
132.It Bq Er EDQUOT
133The directory in which the entry for the new link
134is being placed cannot be extended because the
135user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
136containing the directory has been exhausted.
137.It Bq Er EIO
138An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
139the file system to make the directory entry.
140.It Bq Er EROFS
141The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
142system.
143.It Bq Er EFAULT
144One of the pathnames specified
145is outside the process's allocated address space.
146.El
147.Sh SEE ALSO
148.Xr readlink 2 ,
149.Xr symlink 2 ,
150.Xr unlink 2
151.Sh STANDARDS
152The
153.Fn link
154function call is expected to conform to
155.St -p1003.1-90 .
156.Sh HISTORY
157A
158.Fn link
159function call appeared in
160.At v7 .
161.Pp
162The
163.Fn link
164system call traditionally allows the super-user to link directories which
165corrupts the filesystem coherency.  This implementation no longer permits
166it.
167