09-19-2003
You can have many symbolic links in a filesystem. The limiting factor is how many inodes are available. That is not the problem. You have too many symbolic links for this particular pathname.
Suppose the system tries to open a file called "a". But it finds that "a" is a symbolic link to "b". The system then must open "b". But "b" is a symbolic link to "c". Now the system must open "c". And "c" could be a symbolic link to "d" and so on. The system must reach a real file or directory after 32 tries. If not, the open will fail.
32 is a lot. I'll bet you have a loop. Something like this:
ln -s a b
ln -s b a
vi a
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LEARN ABOUT OPENSOLARIS
symlink
symlink(2) System Calls symlink(2)
NAME
symlink - make a symbolic link to a file
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int symlink(const char *name1, const char *name2);
DESCRIPTION
The symlink() function creates a symbolic link name2 to the file name1. Either name may be an arbitrary pathname, the files need not be on
the same file system, and name1 may be nonexistent.
The file to which the symbolic link points is used when an open(2) operation is performed on the link. A stat() operation performed on a
symbolic link returns the linked-to file, while an lstat() operation returns information about the link itself. See stat(2). Unexpected
results may occur when a symbolic link is made to a directory. To avoid confusion in applications, the readlink(2) call can be used to read
the contents of a symbolic link.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, 0 is returned. Otherwise, -1 is returned, errno is set to indicate the error, and the symbolic link is not
made.
ERRORS
The symlink() function will fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix of name2.
EDQUOT The directory where the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk
blocks on that file system has been exhausted; the new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's quota of disk
blocks on that file system has been exhausted; or the user's quota of inodes on the file system where the file is being
created has been exhausted.
EEXIST The file referred to by name2 already exists.
EFAULT The name1 or name2 argument points to an illegal address.
EILSEQ The path argument includes non-UTF8 characters and the file system accepts only file names where all characters are part of
the UTF-8 character codeset.
EIO An I/O error occurs while reading from or writing to the file system.
ELOOP Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating name2.
ENAMETOOLONG The length of the name2 argument exceeds PATH_MAX, or the length of a name2 component exceeds NAME_MAX while
_POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOENT A component of the path prefix of name2 does not exist.
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; the new symbolic link cannot be created because no space is left on the file sys-
tem which will contain the link; or there are no free inodes on the file system on which the file is being created.
ENOSYS The file system does not support symbolic links.
ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix of name2 is not a directory.
EROFS The file name2 would reside on a read-only file system.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Standard |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
cp(1), link(2), open(2), readlink(2), stat(2), unlink(2), attributes(5)
SunOS 5.11 18 May 2007 symlink(2)