NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     readlink -- read value of a symbolic link

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     readlink(const char *path, char *buf, int bufsiz);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The readlink() system call places the contents of the symbolic link path
     in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.	The readlink() system call
     does not append a NUL character to buf.

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

     The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer if it succeeds,
 or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the global
     variable errno.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The readlink() system call will fail if:

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or
			an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]		The named file does not exist.

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

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating
 the pathname.

     [EINVAL]		The named file is not a symbolic link.

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


     [EFAULT]		The buf argument extends outside the process's allocated
 address space.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     lstat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), symlink(7)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The readlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.


FreeBSD 5.2.1			 June 4, 1993			 FreeBSD 5.2.1