xref: /386bsd/usr/src/lib/libc/sys/symlink.2 (revision a2142627)
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32.\"     @(#)symlink.2	6.6 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
33.\"
34.Dd March 10, 1991
35.Dt SYMLINK 2
36.Os BSD 4.2
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm symlink
39.Nd make symbolic link to a file
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Fd #include <unistd.h>
42.Ft int
43.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45A symbolic link
46.Fa name2
47is created to
48.Fa name1
49.Pf ( Fa name2
50is the name of the
51file created,
52.Fa name1
53is the string
54used in creating the symbolic link).
55Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not
56be on the same file system.
57.Sh RETURN VALUES
58Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned.
59If an error occurs, the error code is stored in
60.Va errno
61and a -1 value is returned.
62.Sh ERRORS
63The symbolic link succeeds unless:
64.Bl -tag -width ENAMETOO
65.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
66A component of the
67.Fa name2
68prefix is not a directory.
69.It Bq Er EINVAL
70Either
71.Fa name1
72or
73.Fa name2
74contains a character with the high-order bit set.
75.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
76A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
77or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
78.It Bq Er ENOENT
79The named file does not exist.
80.It Bq Er EACCES
81A component of the
82.Fa name2
83path prefix denies search permission.
84.It Bq Er ELOOP
85Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
86.It Bq Er EEXIST
87.Fa Name2
88already exists.
89.It Bq Er EIO
90An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for
91.Fa name2 ,
92or allocating the inode for
93.Fa name2 ,
94or writing out the link contents of
95.Fa name2 .
96.It Bq Er EROFS
97The file
98.Fa name2
99would reside on a read-only file system.
100.It Bq Er ENOSPC
101The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed
102cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
103system containing the directory.
104.It Bq Er ENOSPC
105The new symbolic link cannot be created because there
106there is no space left on the file
107system that will contain the symbolic link.
108.It Bq Er ENOSPC
109There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
110symbolic link is being created.
111.It Bq Er EDQUOT
112The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link
113is being placed cannot be extended because the
114user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
115containing the directory has been exhausted.
116.It Bq Er EDQUOT
117The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's
118quota of disk blocks on the file system that will
119contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.
120.It Bq Er EDQUOT
121The user's quota of inodes on the file system on
122which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.
123.It Bq Er EIO
124An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.
125.It Bq Er EFAULT
126.Fa Name1
127or
128.Fa name2
129points outside the process's allocated address space.
130.El
131.Sh SEE ALSO
132.Xr link 2 ,
133.Xr ln 1 ,
134.Xr unlink 2
135.Sh HISTORY
136The
137.Nm
138function call appeared in
139.Bx 4.2 .
140