xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/sys/rename.2 (revision dc71b7ab)
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28.\"     @(#)rename.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/sys/rename.2,v 1.8.2.7 2001/12/14 18:34:01 ru Exp $
30.\"
31.Dd July 31, 2010
32.Dt RENAME 2
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm rename ,
36.Nm renameat
37.Nd change the name of a file
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In stdio.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn rename "const char *from" "const char *to"
44.Ft int
45.Fn renameat "int fromfd" "const char *from" "int tofd" "const char *to"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Fn Rename
48causes the link named
49.Fa from
50to be renamed as
51.Fa to .
52If
53.Fa to
54exists, it is first removed.
55Both
56.Fa from
57and
58.Fa to
59must be of the same type (that is, both directories or both
60non-directories), and must reside on the same file system.
61.Pp
62.Fn Rename
63guarantees that if
64.Fa to
65already exists, an instance of
66.Fa to
67will always exist, even if the system should crash in
68the middle of the operation.
69.Pp
70If the final component of
71.Fa from
72is a symbolic link,
73the symbolic link is renamed,
74not the file or directory to which it points.
75.Pp
76The
77.Fn renameat
78system call is equivalent to
79.Fn rename
80except in the case where either
81.Fa from
82or
83.Fa to
84specifies a relative path.
85If
86.Fa from
87is a relative path, the file to be renamed is located
88relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor
89.Fa fromfd
90instead of the current working directory.
91If the
92.Fa to
93is a relative path, the same happens only relative to the directory associated
94with
95.Fa tofd .
96If the
97.Fn renameat
98is passed the special value
99.Dv AT_FDCWD
100in the
101.Fa fromfd
102or
103.Fa tofd
104parameter, the current working directory is used in the determination
105of the file for the respective path parameter.
106.\".Sh CAVEAT
107.\"The system can deadlock if a loop in the file system graph is present.
108.\"This loop takes the form of an entry in directory
109.\".Ql Pa a ,
110.\"say
111.\".Ql Pa a/foo ,
112.\"being a hard link to directory
113.\".Ql Pa b ,
114.\"and an entry in
115.\"directory
116.\".Ql Pa b ,
117.\"say
118.\".Ql Pa b/bar ,
119.\"being a hard link
120.\"to directory
121.\".Ql Pa a .
122.\"When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
123.\"perform
124.\".Ql rename a/foo b/bar
125.\"and
126.\".Ql rename b/bar a/foo ,
127.\"respectively,
128.\"the system may deadlock attempting to lock
129.\"both directories for modification.
130.\"Hard links to directories should be
131.\"replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator.
132.Sh RETURN VALUES
133.Rv -std rename renameat
134.Sh ERRORS
135.Fn Rename
136will fail and neither of the argument files will be
137affected if:
138.Bl -tag -width Er
139.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
140A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
141or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
142.It Bq Er ENOENT
143A component of the
144.Fa from
145path does not exist,
146or a path prefix of
147.Fa to
148does not exist.
149.It Bq Er EACCES
150A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
151.It Bq Er EACCES
152The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
153that denies write permission.
154.It Bq Er EPERM
155The directory containing
156.Fa from
157is marked sticky,
158and neither the containing directory nor
159.Fa from
160are owned by the effective user ID.
161.It Bq Er EPERM
162The
163.Fa to
164file exists,
165the directory containing
166.Fa to
167is marked sticky,
168and neither the containing directory nor
169.Fa to
170are owned by the effective user ID.
171.It Bq Er ELOOP
172Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating either pathname.
173.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
174A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
175.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
176.Fa from
177is a directory, but
178.Fa to
179is not a directory.
180.It Bq Er EISDIR
181.Fa to
182is a directory, but
183.Fa from
184is not a directory.
185.It Bq Er EXDEV
186The link named by
187.Fa to
188and the file named by
189.Fa from
190are on different logical devices (file systems).  Note that this error
191code will not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device
192links.
193.It Bq Er ENOSPC
194The directory in which the entry for the new name is being placed
195cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
196system containing the directory.
197.It Bq Er EDQUOT
198The directory in which the entry for the new name
199is being placed cannot be extended because the
200user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
201containing the directory has been exhausted.
202.It Bq Er EIO
203An I/O error occurred while making or updating a directory entry.
204.It Bq Er EROFS
205The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
206system.
207.It Bq Er EFAULT
208.Em Path
209points outside the process's allocated address space.
210.It Bq Er EINVAL
211.Fa From
212is a parent directory of
213.Fa to ,
214or an attempt is made to rename
215.Ql .\&
216or
217.Ql \&.. .
218.It Bq Er ENOTEMPTY
219.Fa To
220is a directory and is not empty.
221.El
222.Pp
223In addition to the errors returned by the
224.Fn rename ,
225the
226.Fn renameat
227may fail if:
228.Bl -tag -width Er
229.It Bq Er EBADF
230The
231.Fa from
232argument does not specify an absolute path and the
233.Fa fromfd
234argument is neither
235.Dv AT_FDCWD
236nor a valid file descriptor open for searching, or the
237.Fa to
238argument does not specify an absolute path and the
239.Fa tofd
240argument is neither
241.Dv AT_FDCWD
242nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
243.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
244The
245.Fa from
246argument is not an absolute path and
247.Fa fromfd
248is neither
249.Dv AT_FDCWD
250nor a file descriptor associated with a directory, or the
251.Fa to
252argument is not an absolute path and
253.Fa tofd
254is neither
255.Dv AT_FDCWD
256nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
257.El
258.Sh SEE ALSO
259.Xr open 2 ,
260.Xr symlink 7
261.Sh STANDARDS
262The
263.Fn rename
264system call is expected to conform to
265.St -p1003.1-96 .
266The
267.Fn renameat
268system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.
269.Sh HISTORY
270The
271.Fn renameat
272system call appeared in
273.Dx 2.7 .
274