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, size_t bufsiz);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     readlink() places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer
     buf, which has size bufsiz.  readlink() 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]

     readlink() will fail if:

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

     [ENAMETOOLONG]     A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
 or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} 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]           buf 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() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

BSD                              June 4, 1993                              BSD