xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/sys/symlink.2 (revision 984263bc)
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32.\"     @(#)symlink.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/symlink.2,v 1.8.2.4 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt SYMLINK 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm symlink
40.Nd make symbolic link to a file
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In unistd.h
45.Ft int
46.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48A symbolic link
49.Fa name2
50is created to
51.Fa name1
52.Pf ( Fa name2
53is the name of the
54file created,
55.Fa name1
56is the string
57used in creating the symbolic link).
58Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not
59be on the same file system.
60.Sh RETURN VALUES
61.Rv -std symlink
62.Sh ERRORS
63The symbolic link succeeds unless:
64.Bl -tag -width Er
65.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
66A component of the
67.Fa name2
68prefix is not a directory.
69.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
70A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
71or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
72.It Bq Er ENOENT
73The named file does not exist.
74.It Bq Er EACCES
75A component of the
76.Fa name2
77path prefix denies search permission.
78.It Bq Er ELOOP
79Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
80.It Bq Er EEXIST
81.Fa Name2
82already exists.
83.It Bq Er EIO
84An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for
85.Fa name2 ,
86or allocating the inode for
87.Fa name2 ,
88or writing out the link contents of
89.Fa name2 .
90.It Bq Er EROFS
91The file
92.Fa name2
93would reside on a read-only file system.
94.It Bq Er ENOSPC
95The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed
96cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
97system containing the directory.
98.It Bq Er ENOSPC
99The new symbolic link cannot be created because
100there is no space left on the file
101system that will contain the symbolic link.
102.It Bq Er ENOSPC
103There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
104symbolic link is being created.
105.It Bq Er EDQUOT
106The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link
107is being placed cannot be extended because the
108user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
109containing the directory has been exhausted.
110.It Bq Er EDQUOT
111The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's
112quota of disk blocks on the file system that will
113contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.
114.It Bq Er EDQUOT
115The user's quota of inodes on the file system on
116which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.
117.It Bq Er EIO
118An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.
119.It Bq Er EFAULT
120.Fa Name1
121or
122.Fa name2
123points outside the process's allocated address space.
124.El
125.Sh SEE ALSO
126.Xr ln 1 ,
127.Xr link 2 ,
128.Xr lstat 2 ,
129.Xr readlink 2 ,
130.Xr unlink 2 ,
131.Xr symlink 7
132.Sh HISTORY
133The
134.Fn symlink
135function call appeared in
136.Bx 4.2 .
137