Content-type: text/html Man page of readlink

readlink

Section: System Calls (2)
Updated: 1 Dec 2003
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NAME

readlink - read the contents of a symbolic link  

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

ssize_t readlink(const char *restrict path, char *restrict buf, size_t bufsiz);  

DESCRIPTION

The readlink() function places the contents of the symbolic link referred to by path in the buffer buf which has size bufsiz. If the number of bytes in the symbolic link is less than bufsiz, the contents of the remainder of buf are left unchanged. If the buf argument is not large enough to contain the link content, the first bufsize bytes are placed in buf.  

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, readlink() returns the count of bytes placed in the buffer. Otherwise, it returns -1, leaves the buffer unchanged, and sets errno to indicate the error.  

ERRORS

The readlink() function will fail if:

EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix of path.

EFAULT path or buf points to an illegal address.

EINVAL The path argument names a file that is not a symbolic link.

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

ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.

ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.

ENAMETOOLONG The length of path exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or a pathname component is longer than {NAME_MAX} while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.

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

ENOSYS The file system does not support symbolic links.

The readlink() function may fail if:

EACCES Read permission is denied for the directory.

ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.

ENAMETOOLONG As a result of encountering a symbolic link in resolution of the path argument, the length of the substituted pathname string exceeded {PATH_MAX}.

 

USAGE

Portable applications should not assume that the returned contents of the symbolic link are null-terminated.  

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPEATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface StabilityStandard
MT-LevelAsync-Signal-Safe

 

SEE ALSO

stat(2), symlink(2), attributes(5), standards(5)


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
RETURN VALUES
ERRORS
USAGE
ATTRIBUTES
SEE ALSO

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Time: 02:37:15 GMT, October 02, 2010