readlinkat(2) [freebsd man page]

READLINK(2)						      BSD System Calls Manual						       READLINK(2)

NAME

     readlink, readlinkat -- read value of a symbolic link

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     ssize_t
     readlink(const char *restrict path, char *restrict buf, size_t bufsiz);

     ssize_t
     readlinkat(int fd, const char *restrict path, char *restrict buf, size_t bufsize);

DESCRIPTION

     The readlink() system call places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.  The readlink() system
     call does not append a NUL character to buf.

     The readlinkat() system call is equivalent to readlink() except in the case where path specifies a relative path.	In this case the symbolic
     link whose content is read relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory.  If
     readlinkat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to
     a call to readlink().

RETURN VALUES

     The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer if it succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the
     global variable errno.

ERRORS

     The readlink() system call will fail if:

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]		The named file does not exist.

     [EACCES]		Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

     [EINVAL]		The named file is not a symbolic link.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.

     [EFAULT]		The buf argument extends outside the process's allocated address space.

     In addition to the errors returned by the readlink(), the readlinkat() may fail if:

     [EBADF]		The path argument does not specify an absolute path and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor
			open for searching.

     [ENOTDIR]		The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.

SEE ALSO

     lstat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS

     The readlinkat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.

HISTORY

     The readlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.  The readlinkat() system call appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

BSD
								  April 10, 2008							       BSD

Check Out this Related Man Page

READLINK(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						       READLINK(2)

NAME

       readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       ssize_t readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       readlink(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION

       readlink()  places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.  readlink() does not append a null byte
       to buf.	It will truncate the contents (to a length of bufsiz characters), in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, readlink() returns the number of bytes placed in buf.  On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EFAULT buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.

       EINVAL bufsiz is not positive.

       EINVAL The named file is not a symbolic link.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.

       ENOENT The named file does not exist.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

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

CONFORMING TO

       4.4BSD (the readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

       In versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of readlink() was declared  as  int.   Nowadays,  the  return  type	is
       declared as ssize_t, as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO

       lstat(2), readlinkat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON

       This  page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux								    2007-07-26							       READLINK(2)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

readlinkat(2) [freebsd man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page