LINK(2) Linux Programmer's Manual LINK(2)

NAME

link - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h> int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

DESCRIPTION

link creates a new link (also known as a hard link) to an existing file. If newpath exists it will not be overwritten. This new name may be used exactly as the old one for any operation; both names refer to the same file (and so have the same permissions and ownership) and it is impossible to tell which name was the `original'.

RETURN VALUE

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EXDEV oldpath and newpath are not on the same filesys- tem. EPERM The filesystem containing oldpath and newpath does not support the creation of hard links. EFAULT oldpath or newpath points outside your accessible address space. EACCES Write access to the directory containing newpath is not allowed for the process's effective uid, or one of the directories in oldpath or newpath did not allow search (execute) permission. ENAMETOOLONG oldpath or newpath was too long. ENOENT A directory component in oldpath or newpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link. ENOTDIR A component used as a directory in oldpath or new- path is not, in fact, a directory. ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available. EROFS The file is on a read-only filesystem. EEXIST newpath already exists. EMLINK The file referred to by oldpath already has the

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LINK(2) Linux Programmer's Manual LINK(2)

maximum number of links to it. ELOOP oldpath or newpath contains a reference to a cir- cular symbolic link, ie a symbolic link whose expansion contains a reference to itself. ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry. EPERM oldpath is the . or .. entry of a directory.

NOTES

Hard links, as created by link, cannot span filesystems. Use symlink if this is required.

CONFORMING TO

SVID, AT&T, POSIX, BSD 4.3

BUGS

On NFS file systems, the return code may be wrong in case the NFS server performs the link creation and dies before it can say so. Use stat(2) to find out if the link got created.

SEE ALSO

symlink, unlink, rename, open, stat, ln,































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