READLINK
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2010-09-20
NAME
readlink - read value of a symbolic link
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
ssize_t readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
feature_test_macros(7)):
readlink():
-
_BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
_XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
DESCRIPTION
readlink()
places the contents of the symbolic link
path
in the buffer
buf,
which has size
bufsiz.
readlink()
does not append a null byte to
buf.
It will truncate the contents (to a length of
bufsiz
characters), in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.
RETURN VALUE
On success,
readlink()
returns the number of bytes placed in
buf.
On error, -1 is returned and
errno
is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
- EACCES
-
Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
(See also
path_resolution(7).)
- EFAULT
-
buf
extends outside the process's allocated address space.
- EINVAL
-
bufsiz
is not positive.
- EINVAL
-
The named file is not a symbolic link.
- EIO
-
An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
- ELOOP
-
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
- ENAMETOOLONG
-
A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.
- ENOENT
-
The named file does not exist.
- ENOMEM
-
Insufficient kernel memory was available.
- ENOTDIR
-
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
CONFORMING TO
4.4BSD
(readlink()
first appeared in 4.2BSD),
POSIX.1-2001.
NOTES
In versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of
readlink()
was declared as
int.
Nowadays, the return type is declared as
ssize_t,
as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.
SEE ALSO
lstat(2),
readlinkat(2),
stat(2),
symlink(2),
path_resolution(7),
symlink(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.27 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/.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- NOTES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COLOPHON
-
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Time: 07:34:56 GMT, March 26, 2013