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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 ||
	   _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED ||
	   _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).)

       EDQUOT The user's  quota	 of  resources	on  the	 filesystem  has  been
	      exhausted.   The	resources  could  be  inodes  or  disk blocks,
	      depending on the filesystem implementation.

       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  filesystem containing newpath does not support the creation
	      of symbolic links.

       EROFS  newpath is on a read-only filesystem.

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 3.54 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				  2013-01-27			    SYMLINK(2)
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