1.\" $OpenBSD: readlink.2,v 1.8 1999/05/23 14:10:55 aaron Exp $ 2.\" $NetBSD: readlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:35:54 cgd Exp $ 3.\" 4.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 5.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 6.\" 7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 9.\" are met: 10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 16.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 17.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 18.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 19.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 20.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 21.\" without specific prior written permission. 22.\" 23.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 24.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 25.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 26.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 27.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 28.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 29.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 30.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 31.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 32.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 33.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 34.\" 35.\" @(#)readlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 36.\" 37.Dd June 4, 1993 38.Dt READLINK 2 39.Os 40.Sh NAME 41.Nm readlink 42.Nd read value of a symbolic link 43.Sh SYNOPSIS 44.Fd #include <unistd.h> 45.Ft int 46.Fn readlink "const char *path" "char *buf" "size_t bufsiz" 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48.Fn readlink 49places the contents of the symbolic link 50.Fa path 51in the buffer 52.Fa buf , 53which has size 54.Fa bufsiz . 55.Nm readlink 56does not append a 57.Dv NUL 58character to 59.Fa buf . 60.Sh RETURN VALUES 61The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer 62if it succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error 63code in the global variable 64.Va errno . 65.Sh ERRORS 66.Fn readlink 67will fail if: 68.Bl -tag -width Er 69.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 70A component of the path prefix is not a directory. 71.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 72A component of a pathname exceeded 73.Dv {NAME_MAX} 74characters, or an entire path name exceeded 75.Dv {PATH_MAX} 76characters. 77.It Bq Er ENOENT 78The named file does not exist. 79.It Bq Er EACCES 80Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. 81.It Bq Er ELOOP 82Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. 83.It Bq Er EINVAL 84The named file is not a symbolic link. 85.It Bq Er EIO 86An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system. 87.It Bq Er EFAULT 88.Fa buf 89extends outside the process's allocated address space. 90.El 91.Sh SEE ALSO 92.Xr lstat 2 , 93.Xr stat 2 , 94.Xr symlink 2 , 95.Xr symlink 7 96.Sh HISTORY 97The 98.Fn readlink 99function call appeared in 100.Bx 4.2 . 101