SYMLINK(2)                  BSD System Calls Manual                 SYMLINK(2)

NAME
     symlink, symlinkat -- make symbolic link to a file

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     symlink(const char *path1, const char *path2);

     int
     symlinkat(const char *name1, int fd, const char *name2);

DESCRIPTION
     A symbolic link path2 is created to path1 (path2 is the name of the file
     created, path1 is the string used in creating the symbolic link).  Either
     name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on the same
     file system.

     The symlinkat() system call is equivalent to symlink() except in the case
     where name2 specifies a relative path.  In this case the symbolic link is
     created relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd
     instead of the current working directory.  If symlinkat() is passed the
     special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory
     is used and the behavior is identical to a call to symlink().

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion, a zero value is returned.  If an error
     occurs, the error code is stored in errno and a -1 value is returned.

ERRORS
     The symbolic link succeeds unless:

     [EACCES]           Write permission is denied in the directory where the
                        symbolic link is being created.

     [EACCES]           A component of the path2 path prefix denies search
                        permission.

     [EDQUOT]           The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic
                        link is being placed cannot be extended because the
                        user's quota of disk blocks on the file system con-
                        taining the directory has been exhausted.

     [EDQUOT]           The new symbolic link cannot be created because the
                        user's quota of disk blocks on the file system that
                        will contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.

     [EDQUOT]           The user's quota of inodes on the file system on which
                        the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.

     [EEXIST]           Path2 already exists.

     [EFAULT]           Path1 or path2 points outside the process's allocated
                        address space.

     [EIO]              An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry
                        or allocating the inode.

     [EIO]              An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry
                        for path2, or allocating the inode for path2, or writ-
                        ing out the link contents of path2.

     [ELOOP]            Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating
                        the pathname.  This is taken to be indicative of a
                        looping symbolic link.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} charac-
                        ters, or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} char-
                        acters.

     [ENOENT]           A component of path2 does not name an existing file or
                        path2 is an empty string.

     [ENOSPC]           The directory in which the entry for the new symbolic
                        link is being placed cannot be extended because there
                        is no space left on the file system containing the
                        directory.

     [ENOSPC]           The new symbolic link cannot be created because there
                        there is no space left on the file system that will
                        contain the symbolic link.

     [ENOSPC]           There are no free inodes on the file system on which
                        the symbolic link is being created.

     [ENOTDIR]          A component of the path2 prefix is not a directory.

     [EROFS]            The file path2 would reside on a read-only file sys-
                        tem.

     In addition to the errors returned by the symlink(), the symlinkat() may
     fail if:

     [EBADF]            The name2 argument does not specify an absolute path
                        and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid
                        file descriptor open for searching.

     [ENOTDIR]          The name2 argument is not an absolute path and fd is
                        neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with
                        a directory.

SEE ALSO
     ln(1), link(2), unlink(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The symlinkat() system call is expected to conform to POSIX.1-2008 .

HISTORY
     The symlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.  The symlinkat() system
     call appeared in OS X 10.10

4.2 Berkeley Distribution        June 4, 1993        4.2 Berkeley Distribution