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RENAME(2)		  FreeBSD System Calls Manual		     RENAME(2)

NAME
     rename -- change the name of a file

LIBRARY
     Standard C	Library	(libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdio.h>

     int
     rename(const char *from, const char *to);

     int
     renameat(int fromfd, const	char *from, int	tofd, const char *to);

DESCRIPTION
     The rename() system call causes the link named from to be renamed as to.
     If	to exists, it is first removed.	 Both from and to must be of the same
     type (that	is, both directories or	both non-directories), and must	reside
     on	the same file system.

     The rename() system call guarantees that if to already exists, an in-
     stance of to will always exist, even if the system	should crash in	the
     middle of the operation.

     If	the final component of from is a symbolic link,	the symbolic link is
     renamed, not the file or directory	to which it points.

     If	from and to resolve to the same	directory entry, or to different di-
     rectory entries for the same existing file, rename() returns success
     without taking any	further	action.

     The renameat() system call	is equivalent to rename() except in the	case
     where either from or to specifies a relative path.	 If from is a relative
     path, the file to be renamed is located relative to the directory associ-
     ated with the file	descriptor fromfd instead of the current working di-
     rectory.  If the to is a relative path, the same happens only relative to
     the directory associated with tofd.  If the renameat() is passed the spe-
     cial value	AT_FDCWD in the	fromfd or tofd parameter, the current working
     directory is used in the determination of the file	for the	respective
     path parameter.

RETURN VALUES
     The rename() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise	the
     value -1 is returned and the global variable errno	is set to indicate the
     error.

ERRORS
     The rename() system call will fail	and neither of the argument files will
     be	affected if:

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of either pathname exceeded	255 charac-
			ters, or the entire length of either path name ex-
			ceeded 1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]		A component of the from	path does not exist, or	a path
			prefix of to does not exist.

     [EACCES]		A component of either path prefix denies search	per-
			mission.

     [EACCES]		The requested link requires writing in a directory
			with a mode that denies	write permission.

     [EACCES]		The directory pointed at by the	from argument denies
			write permission, and the operation would move it to
			another	parent directory.

     [EPERM]		The file pointed at by the from	argument has its im-
			mutable, undeletable or	append-only flag set, see the
			chflags(2) manual page for more	information.

     [EPERM]		The parent directory of	the file pointed at by the
			from argument has its immutable	or append-only flag
			set.

     [EPERM]		The parent directory of	the file pointed at by the to
			argument has its immutable flag	set.

     [EPERM]		The directory containing from is marked	sticky,	and
			neither	the containing directory nor from are owned by
			the effective user ID.

     [EPERM]		The file pointed at by the to argument exists, the di-
			rectory	containing to is marked	sticky,	and neither
			the containing directory nor to	are owned by the ef-
			fective	user ID.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links	were encountered in translat-
			ing either pathname.

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

     [ENOTDIR]		The from argument is a directory, but to is not	a di-
			rectory.

     [EISDIR]		The to argument	is a directory,	but from is not	a di-
			rectory.

     [EXDEV]		The link named by to and the file named	by from	are on
			different logical devices (file	systems).  Note	that
			this error code	will not be returned if	the implemen-
			tation permits cross-device links.

     [ENOSPC]		The directory in which the entry for the new name is
			being placed cannot be extended	because	there is no
			space left on the file system containing the direc-
			tory.

     [EDQUOT]		The directory in which the entry for the new name is
			being placed cannot be extended	because	the user's
			quota of disk blocks on	the file system	containing the
			directory has been exhausted.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while making or updating a di-
			rectory	entry.

     [EINTEGRITY]	Corrupted data was detected while reading from the
			file system.

     [EROFS]		The requested link requires writing in a directory on
			a read-only file system.

     [EFAULT]		Path points outside the	process's allocated address
			space.

     [EINVAL]		The from argument is a parent directory	of to, or an
			attempt	is made	to rename `.' or `..'.

     [ENOTEMPTY]	The to argument	is a directory and is not empty.

     [ECAPMODE]		rename() was called and	the process is in capability
			mode.

     In	addition to the	errors returned	by the rename(), the renameat()	may
     fail if:

     [EBADF]		The from argument does not specify an absolute path
			and the	fromfd argument	is neither AT_FDCWD nor	a
			valid file descriptor open for searching, or the to
			argument does not specify an absolute path and the
			tofd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a	valid file de-
			scriptor open for searching.

     [ENOTDIR]		The from argument is not an absolute path and fromfd
			is neither AT_FDCWD nor	a file descriptor associated
			with a directory, or the to argument is	not an abso-
			lute path and tofd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a file de-
			scriptor associated with a directory.

     [ECAPMODE]		AT_FDCWD is specified and the process is in capability
			mode.

     [ENOTCAPABLE]	path is	an absolute path or contained a	".." component
			leading	to a directory outside of the directory	hier-
			archy specified	by fromfd or tofd.

     [ENOTCAPABLE]	The fromfd file	descriptor lacks the
			CAP_RENAMEAT_SOURCE right, or the tofd file descriptor
			lacks the CAP_RENAMEAT_TARGET right.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(2), open(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The rename() system call is expected to conform to	ISO/IEC	9945-1:1996
     ("POSIX.1").  The renameat() system call follows The Open Group Extended
     API Set 2 specification.

HISTORY
     The renameat() system call	appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

FreeBSD	13.0			March 30, 2020			  FreeBSD 13.0

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY

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