1.\" $NetBSD: symlink.2,v 1.7 1995/02/27 12:38:34 cgd Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)symlink.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 35.\" 36.Dd June 4, 1993 37.Dt SYMLINK 2 38.Os BSD 4.2 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm symlink , 41.Nm symlinkat 42.Nd make symbolic link to a file 43.Sh SYNOPSIS 44.Fd #include <unistd.h> 45.Ft int 46.Fo symlink 47.Fa "const char *path1" 48.Fa "const char *path2" 49.Fc 50.Ft int 51.Fn symlinkat "const char *name1" "int fd" "const char *name2" 52.Sh DESCRIPTION 53A symbolic link 54.Fa path2 55is created to 56.Fa path1 57.Pf ( Fa path2 58is the name of the 59file created, 60.Fa path1 61is the string 62used in creating the symbolic link). 63Either name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not 64be on the same file system. 65.Pp 66The 67.Fn symlinkat 68system call is equivalent to 69.Fn symlink 70except in the case where 71.Fa name2 72specifies a relative path. 73In this case the symbolic link is created relative to the directory 74associated with the file descriptor 75.Fa fd 76instead of the current working directory. 77If 78.Fn symlinkat 79is passed the special value 80.Dv AT_FDCWD 81in the 82.Fa fd 83parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is 84identical to a call to 85.Fn symlink . 86.Sh RETURN VALUES 87Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned. 88If an error occurs, the error code is stored in 89.Va errno 90and a -1 value is returned. 91.Sh ERRORS 92The symbolic link succeeds unless: 93.Bl -tag -width Er 94.\" =========== 95.It Bq Er EACCES 96Write permission is denied in the directory 97where the symbolic link is being created. 98.\" =========== 99.It Bq Er EACCES 100A component of the 101.Fa path2 102path prefix denies search permission. 103.\" =========== 104.It Bq Er EDQUOT 105The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link 106is being placed cannot be extended because the 107user's quota of disk blocks on the file system 108containing the directory has been exhausted. 109.\" =========== 110.It Bq Er EDQUOT 111The new symbolic link cannot be created because the user's 112quota of disk blocks on the file system that will 113contain the symbolic link has been exhausted. 114.\" =========== 115.It Bq Er EDQUOT 116The user's quota of inodes on the file system on 117which the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted. 118.\" =========== 119.It Bq Er EEXIST 120.Fa Path2 121already exists. 122.\" =========== 123.It Bq Er EFAULT 124.Fa Path1 125or 126.Fa path2 127points outside the process's allocated address space. 128.\" =========== 129.It Bq Er EIO 130An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry 131or allocating the inode. 132.\" =========== 133.It Bq Er EIO 134An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry for 135.Fa path2 , 136or allocating the inode for 137.Fa path2 , 138or writing out the link contents of 139.Fa path2 . 140.\" =========== 141.It Bq Er ELOOP 142Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating the pathname. 143This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link. 144.\" =========== 145.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 146A component of a pathname exceeds 147.Dv {NAME_MAX} 148characters, or an entire path name exceeds 149.Dv {PATH_MAX} 150characters. 151.\" =========== 152.It Bq Er ENOENT 153A component of 154.Fa path2 155does not name an existing file or 156.Fa path2 157is an empty string. 158.\" =========== 159.It Bq Er ENOSPC 160The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic link is being placed 161cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file 162system containing the directory. 163.\" =========== 164.It Bq Er ENOSPC 165The new symbolic link cannot be created because there 166there is no space left on the file 167system that will contain the symbolic link. 168.\" =========== 169.It Bq Er ENOSPC 170There are no free inodes on the file system on which the 171symbolic link is being created. 172.\" =========== 173.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 174A component of the 175.Fa path2 176prefix is not a directory. 177.\" =========== 178.It Bq Er EROFS 179The file 180.Fa path2 181would reside on a read-only file system. 182.El 183.Pp 184In addition to the errors returned by the 185.Fn symlink , 186the 187.Fn symlinkat 188may fail if: 189.Bl -tag -width Er 190.It Bq Er EBADF 191The 192.Fa name2 193argument does not specify an absolute path and the 194.Fa fd 195argument is neither 196.Dv AT_FDCWD 197nor a valid file descriptor open for searching. 198.It Bq Er ENOTDIR 199The 200.Fa name2 201argument is not an absolute path and 202.Fa fd 203is neither 204.Dv AT_FDCWD 205nor a file descriptor associated with a directory. 206.It Bq Er EILSEQ 207The filename does not match the encoding rules. 208.El 209.Sh SEE ALSO 210.Xr ln 1 , 211.Xr link 2 , 212.Xr unlink 2 , 213.Xr symlink 7 214.Sh STANDARDS 215The 216.Fn symlinkat 217system call is expected to conform to POSIX.1-2008 . 218.Sh HISTORY 219The 220.Fn symlink 221function call appeared in 222.Bx 4.2 . 223The 224.Fn symlinkat 225system call appeared in OS X 10.10 226