HP-UX Reference (11i v2 07/12) - 2 System Calls (vol 5)

ManualsBrandsHP ManualsSoftwareHP-UX Reference Manuals

461

462

463

464

465

466

467

468

469

470

symlink(2) symlink(2)

NAME

symlink() - make symbolic link to a ﬁle

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int symlink(const char *path1, const char *path2);

DESCRIPTION

The symlink() function creates a symbolic link. Its name is the pathname pointed to by path2, which

must be a pathname that does not name an existing ﬁle or symbolic link. The contents of the symbolic link

are the string pointed to by path1.

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion,

symlink() returns 0. Otherwise, it returns -1 and sets

errno to indicate

the error.

ERRORS

symlink() fails, errno is set to one of the following values:

[EACCES] Write permission is denied in the directory where the symbolic link is being

created, or search permission is denied for a component of the path preﬁx

of path2.

[EEXIST] The path2 argument names an existing ﬁle or symbolic link.

[EFAULT] path1 or path2 points outside the process’s allocated address space. The

reliable detection of this error is implementation-dependent.

[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from path1, making the directory

entry for path2, allocating the inode for path2, or writing out the link con-

tents of path2.

[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path2.

[ENAMETOOLONG] The length of the path2 argument exceeds {

PATH_MAX}, or pathname reso-

lution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result that exceeds

{

PATH_MAX}, or a pathname component is longer than {NAME_MAX}.

[ENOENT] A component of path2 does not name an existing ﬁle or path2 is an empty

string.

[ENOSPC] The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed

cannot be extended because no space is left on the ﬁle system containing

the directory, or the new symbolic link cannot be created because no space

is left on the ﬁle system which will contain the link, or the ﬁle system is out

of ﬁle-allocation resources.

[ENOTDIR] A component of the path preﬁx of path2 is not a directory.

[EROFS] The new symbolic link would reside on a read-only ﬁle system.

APPLICATION USAGE

Like a hard link, a symbolic link allows a ﬁle to have multiple logical names. The presence of a hard link

guarantees the existence of a ﬁle, even after the original name has been removed. A symbolic link provides

no such assurance; in fact, the ﬁle named by the path1 argument need not exist when the link is created. A

symbolic link can cross ﬁle system boundaries.

Normal permission checks are made on each component of the symbolic link pathname during its resolu-

tion.

AUTHOR

symlink() was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.