bsd man page for readlink

READLINK(2)							System Calls Manual						       READLINK(2)

NAME
       readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS
       cc = readlink(path, buf, bufsiz)
       int cc;
       char *path, *buf;
       int bufsiz;

DESCRIPTION
       Readlink  places  the  contents	of the symbolic link name in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.  The contents of the link are not null
       terminated when returned.

RETURN VALUE
       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
       Readlink will fail and the file mode will be unchanged if:

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

       [EINVAL]       The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.

       [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]       Buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.

SEE ALSO
       stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2)

4.2 Berkeley Distribution					  August 26, 1985						       READLINK(2)