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READLINK(2)              DragonFly System Calls Manual             READLINK(2)


NAME

     readlink, readlinkat -- read value of a symbolic link


LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     ssize_t
     readlink(const char * restrict path, char * restrict buf, size_t bufsiz);

     ssize_t
     readlinkat(int fd, const char * restrict path, char * restrict buf,
         size_t bufsize);


DESCRIPTION

     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.

     The readlinkat() system call is equivalent to readlink() except in the
     case where path specifies a relative path.  In this case the symbolic
     link whose content is read relative to the directory associated with the
     file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory.  If
     readlinkat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter,
     the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a
     call to readlink().


RETURN VALUES

     The calls return 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

     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.

     In addition to the errors returned by the readlink(), the readlinkat()
     may fail if:

     [EBADF]            The path argument does not specify an absolute path
                        and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid
                        file descriptor open for searching.

     [ENOTDIR]          The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is
                        neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with
                        a directory.


SEE ALSO

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


STANDARDS

     The readlinkat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2
     specification.


HISTORY

     The readlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.  The readlinkat() system
     call appeared in DragonFly 2.7.

DragonFly 3.5                   August 6, 2010                   DragonFly 3.5

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