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SYMLINK(2)		       System Calls Manual		      SYMLINK(2)

NAME
     symlink, symlinkat -- make symbolic link to a file

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     symlink(const char *name1, const char *name2);

     int
     symlinkat(const char *name1, int fd, const char *name2);

DESCRIPTION
     A	symbolic  link	name2 is created to name1 (name2 is the name of the file
     created, name1 is the string used in creating the symbolic  link).   Either
     name  may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on the same file
     system.

     The symlinkat() system call is equivalent to symlink() except in  the  case
     where  name2  specifies a relative path.  In this case the symbolic link is
     created relative to the directory associated with the  file  descriptor  fd
     instead  of  the  current	working directory.  If symlinkat() 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 symlink().

RETURN VALUES
     The  symlink()  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 symbolic link succeeds unless:

     [ENOTDIR]		A component of the name2 path prefix is not a directory.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A  component  of the name2 pathname exceeded 255 charac-
			ters, or the entire length of either path name	exceeded
			1023 characters.

     [ENOENT]		A component of the name2 path prefix does not exist.

     [EOPNOTSUPP]	The  file system containing the file named by name2 does
			not support symbolic links.

     [EACCES]		A component of the name2 path prefix denies search  per-
			mission, or write permission is denied on the parent di-
			rectory of the file to be created.

     [ELOOP]		Too  many symbolic links were encountered in translating
			the name2 path name.

     [EEXIST]		The path name pointed at by the name2  argument  already
			exists.

     [EPERM]		The  parent directory of the file named by name2 has its
			immutable flag set, see the chflags(2) manual  page  for
			more information.

     [EIO]		An  I/O  error occurred while making the directory entry
			for name2, allocating the inode for  name2,  or  writing
			out the link contents of name2.

     [EROFS]		The file name2 would reside on a read-only file system.

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

     [ENOSPC]		The new symbolic link cannot be created because there is
			no  space  left on the file system that will contain the
			symbolic link.

     [ENOSPC]		There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
			symbolic link is being created.

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

     [EDQUOT]		The  new  symbolic  link  cannot  be created because the
			user's quota of disk blocks on the file system that will
			contain the symbolic link has been exhausted.

     [EDQUOT]		The user's quota of inodes on the file system  on  which
			the symbolic link is being created has been exhausted.

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

     [EFAULT]		The name1 or name2 argument points outside the process's
			allocated address space.

     In addition to the errors returned by the symlink(),  the	symlinkat()  may
     fail if:

     [EBADF]		The name2 argument does not specify an absolute path and
			the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file de-
			scriptor open for searching.

     [ENOTDIR]		The  name2  argument  is  not an absolute path and fd is
			neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a
			directory.

SEE ALSO
     ln(1), chflags(2), link(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), unlink(2), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The symlinkat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 spec-
     ification.

HISTORY
     The symlink() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.  The symlinkat() system  call
     appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	 April 15, 2025 		      SYMLINK(2)

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