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



Linux                     17 August 1994                        1





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,

Linux                     17 August 1994                        2