1.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.15 2002/02/08 01:28:23 ross Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 35.\" 36.Dd June 4, 1993 37.Dt SYMLINK 2 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm symlink 41.Nd make symbolic link to a file 42.Sh LIBRARY 43.Lb libc 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Fd #include \*[Lt]unistd.h\*[Gt] 46.Ft int 47.Fn symlink "const char *name1" "const char *name2" 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49A symbolic link 50.Fa name2 51is created to 52.Fa name1 53.Pf ( Fa name2 54is the name of the 55file created, 56.Fa name1 57is the string 58used in creating the symbolic link). 59Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need neither 60to be on the same file system nor to exist. 61.Sh RETURN VALUES 62Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. 63If an error occurs, the error code is stored in 64.Va errno 65and a -1 value is returned. 66.Sh ERRORS 67The symbolic link succeeds unless: 68.Bl -tag -width Er 69.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 70A component of the 71.Fa name2 72prefix is not a directory. 73.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 74A component of a pathname exceeded 75.Dv {NAME_MAX} 76characters, or an entire path name exceeded 77.Dv {PATH_MAX} 78characters. 79.It Bq Er ENOENT 80A component of the 81.Fa name2 82path does not exist. 83.It Bq Er EACCES 84A component of the 85.Fa name2 86path prefix denies search permission. 87.It Bq Er ELOOP 88Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 89.It Bq Er EEXIST 90.Fa name2 91already exists. 92.It Bq Er EIO 93An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry for 94.Fa name2 , 95or allocating the inode for 96.Fa name2 , 97or writing out the link contents of 98.Fa name2 . 99.It Bq Er EROFS 100The file 101.Fa name2 102would reside on a read-only file system. 103.It Bq Er ENOSPC 104The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 105cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 106system containing the directory. 107.It Bq Er ENOSPC 108The new symbolic link cannot be created because there 109there is no space left on the file 110system that will contain the symbolic link. 111.It Bq Er ENOSPC 112There are no free inodes on the file system on which the 113symbolic link is being created. 114.It Bq Er EDQUOT 115The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 116is being placed cannot be extended because the 117user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 118containing the directory has been exhausted. 119.It Bq Er EDQUOT 120The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 121quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 122contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 123.It Bq Er EDQUOT 124The user's quota of inodes on the file system on 125which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 126.It Bq Er EIO 127An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode. 128.It Bq Er EFAULT 129.Fa name1 130or 131.Fa name2 132points outside the process's allocated address space. 133.El 134.Sh SEE ALSO 135.Xr ln 1 , 136.Xr link 2 , 137.Xr readlink 2 , 138.Xr unlink 2 , 139.Xr symlink 7 140.Sh HISTORY 141The 142.Fn symlink 143function call appeared in 144.Bx 4.2 . 145