ultrix man page for readlink

readlink(2)							System Calls Manual						       readlink(2)

Name
       readlink - read value of a symbolic link

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

Description
       The  system  call places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.  The contents of the link are not
       null terminated when returned.

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.

Diagnostics
       The system call fails under the following conditions:

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

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

       [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist.

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

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

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

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

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

       [ETIMEDOUT]    A  connect  request  or remote file operation failed, because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of
		      time that is dependent on the communications protocol.

See Also
       lstat(2), symlink(2), stat(2)

																       readlink(2)