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

NAME

       symlink - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int symlink(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

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

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

DESCRIPTION

       symlink() creates a symbolic link named newpath which contains the string oldpath.

       Symbolic  links are interpreted at run time as if the contents of the link had been substituted into the path being followed to find a file
       or directory.

       Symbolic links may contain ..  path components, which (if used at the start of the link) refer to the parent directories of that  in  which
       the link resides.

       A  symbolic  link (also known as a soft link) may point to an existing file or to a nonexistent one; the latter case is known as a dangling
       link.

       The permissions of a symbolic link are irrelevant; the ownership is ignored when following the link, but is checked when removal or  renam-
       ing of the link is requested and the link is in a directory with the sticky bit (S_ISVTX) set.

       If newpath exists it will not be overwritten.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

       EACCES Write  access  to  the directory containing newpath is denied, or one of the directories in the path prefix of newpath did not allow
	      search permission.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving newpath.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      oldpath or newpath was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in newpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link, or oldpath is the empty string.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry.

       ENOTDIR
	      A component used as a directory in newpath is not, in fact, a directory.

       EPERM  The file system containing newpath does not support the creation of symbolic links.

       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO

       SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES

       No checking of oldpath is done.

       Deleting the name referred to by a symlink will actually delete the file (unless it also has other hard links).	If this  behavior  is  not
       desired, use link(2).

SEE ALSO

       ln(1), lchown(2), link(2), lstat(2), open(2), readlink(2), rename(2), symlinkat(2), unlink(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								SYMLINK(2)