rename(3)
NAME
rename − change the name of a file
SYNTAX
int rename(from, to)
char *from, *to;
DESCRIPTION
The rename subroutine causes the link named from to be renamed as to. If to exists, then 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 subroutine guarantees that an instance of to will always exist, even if the system should crash in the middle of the operation.
RETURN VALUE
Returns 0 value if the operation succeeds. Otherwise, returns −1 and the global variable errno indicates error code.
RESTRICTIONS
The system can deadlock if a loop in the file system graph is present. This loop takes the form of an entry in directory “a”, say “a/foo”, being a hard link to directory “b”, and an entry in directory “b”, say “b/bar”, being a hard link to directory “a”. When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to perform “rename a/foo b/bar” and “rename b/bar a/foo”, respectively, the system may deadlock attempting to lock both directories for modification. Hard links to directories should be replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator.
DIAGNOSTICS
The rename subroutine will fail if:
[ENOTDIR] A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
[ENOENT] A component of either path prefix does not exist.
[EACCES] A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
[ENOENT] The file named by from does not exist.
[EPERM] The file named by from is a directory and the effective user ID is not superuser.
[EXDEV] The link named by to and the file named by from are on different logical devices (file systems). This error code will not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device links.
[EACCES] The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode that denies write permission.
[EROFS] The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file system.
[EFAULT] The specified path points outside the process’s allocated address space.
[EINVAL] The from is a parent directory of to.