1.\" $NetBSD: readlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:35:54 cgd 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.\" @(#)readlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 35.\" 36.Dd June 4, 1993 37.Dt READLINK 2 38.Os BSD 4.2 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm readlink 41.Nd read value of a symbolic link 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Fd #include <unistd.h> 44.Ft int 45.Fn readlink "const char *path" "char *buf" "size_t bufsiz" 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47.Fn readlink 48places the contents of the symbolic link 49.Fa path 50in the buffer 51.Fa buf , 52which has size 53.Fa bufsiz . 54.Nm readlink 55does not append a 56.Dv NUL 57character to 58.Fa buf . 59.Sh RETURN VALUES 60The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer 61if it succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error 62code in the global variable 63.Va errno . 64.Sh ERRORS 65.Fn readlink 66will fail if: 67.Bl -tag -width Er 68.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 69A component of the path prefix is not a directory. 70.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 71A component of a pathname exceeded 72.Dv {NAME_MAX} 73characters, or an entire path name exceeded 74.Dv {PATH_MAX} 75characters. 76.It Bq Er ENOENT 77The named file does not exist. 78.It Bq Er EACCES 79Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. 80.It Bq Er ELOOP 81Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 82.It Bq Er EINVAL 83The named file is not a symbolic link. 84.It Bq Er EIO 85An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system. 86.It Bq Er EFAULT 87.Fa Buf 88extends outside the process's allocated address space. 89.El 90.Sh SEE ALSO 91.Xr stat 2 , 92.Xr lstat 2 , 93.Xr symlink 2 , 94.Xr symlink 7 95.Sh HISTORY 96The 97.Fn readlink 98function call appeared in 99.Bx 4.2 . 100