symlinkat man page on Archlinux

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

NAME
       symlink, symlinkat - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       int symlink(const char *target, const char *linkpath);

       #include <fcntl.h>	    /* Definition of AT_* constants */
       #include <unistd.h>

       int symlinkat(const char *target, int newdirfd, const char *linkpath);

   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

       symlinkat():
	   Since glibc 2.10:
	       _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
	   Before glibc 2.10:
	       _ATFILE_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       symlink()  creates  a  symbolic	link named linkpath which contains the
       string target.

       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 linkpath exists, it will not be overwritten.

   symlinkat()
       The  symlinkat()	 system	 call operates in exactly the same way as sym‐
       link(), except for the differences described here.

       If the pathname given in linkpath is relative, then it  is  interpreted
       relative	 to  the directory referred to by the file descriptor newdirfd
       (rather than relative to the current working directory of  the  calling
       process, as is done by symlink() for a relative pathname).

       If  linkpath  is	 relative  and newdirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD,
       then linkpath is interpreted relative to the current working  directory
       of the calling process (like symlink()).

       If linkpath is absolute, then newdirfd is ignored.

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 linkpath is denied,  or
	      one  of  the  directories in the path prefix of linkpath 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 linkpath already exists.

       EFAULT target or linkpath points outside your accessible address space.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving linkpath.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      target or linkpath was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in linkpath does not exist or  is  a  dan‐
	      gling symbolic link, or target 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 linkpath is not, in  fact,  a
	      directory.

       EPERM  The filesystem containing linkpath does not support the creation
	      of symbolic links.

       EROFS  linkpath is on a read-only filesystem.

       The following additional errors can occur for symlinkat():

       EBADF  newdirfd is not a valid file descriptor.

       ENOTDIR
	      linkpath is relative and newdirfd is a file descriptor referring
	      to a file other than a directory.

VERSIONS
       symlinkat()  was	 added	to Linux in kernel 2.6.16; library support was
       added to glibc in version 2.4.

CONFORMING TO
       symlink(): SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.

       symlinkat(): POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES
       No checking of target is done.

       Deleting the name referred to by a symbolic link 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),
       unlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.65 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				  2014-02-21			    SYMLINK(2)
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