NAME

readlink − read the contents of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int readlink(const char ∗path, char ∗buf, size_t bufsiz);

DESCRIPTION

The readlink() function places the contents of the symbolic link referred to by path in the buffer buf which has size bufsiz.  If the number of bytes in the symbolic link is less than bufsiz, the contents of the remainder of buf are unspecified. 

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, readlink() returns the count of bytes placed in the buffer.  Otherwise, it returns −1, leaves the buffer unchanged, and sets errno to indicate the error. 

ERRORS

The readlink() function will fail if:

EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix of path. 

EFAULT path or buf points to an illegal address. 

EINVAL The path argument names a file that is not a symbolic link. 

EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system. 

ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string. 

ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path. 

ENAMETOOLONG
The length of path exceeds PATH_MAX, or a pathname component is longer than NAME_MAX while {_POSIX_NO_TRUNC} is in effect. 

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

ENOSYS The file system does not support symbolic links. 

The readlink() function may fail if:

EACCES Read permission is denied for the directory. 

ENAMETOOLONG
Path name resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result whose length exceeds PATH_MAX. 

USAGE

Portable applications should not assume that the returned contents of the symbolic link are null-terminated. 

SEE ALSO

stat(2), symlink(2)

SunOS 5.6  —  Last change: 22 Jan 1996