link

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

###

    LINK(2)             Linux Programmer's Manual             LINK(2)

    NAME
           link - make a new name for a file

    SYNOPSIS
           #include <unistd.h>

           int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

    DESCRIPTION
           link  creates a new link (also known as a hard link) to an
           existing file.

           If newpath exists it will not be overwritten.

           This new name may be used exactly as the old one  for  any
           operation;  both names refer to the same file (and so have
           the same permissions and ownership) and it  is  impossible
           to tell which name was the `original'.

    RETURN VALUE
           On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned,
           and errno is set appropriately.

    ERRORS
           EXDEV   oldpath and newpath are not on the  same  filesys-
                   tem.

           EPERM   The filesystem containing oldpath and newpath does
                   not support the creation of hard links.

           EFAULT  oldpath or newpath points outside your  accessible
                   address space.

           EACCES  Write  access  to the directory containing newpath
                   is not allowed for the process's effective uid, or
                   one  of  the directories in oldpath or newpath did
                   not allow search (execute) permission.

           ENAMETOOLONG
                   oldpath or newpath was too long.

           ENOENT  A directory component in oldpath  or  newpath does
                   not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.

           ENOTDIR A component used as a directory in oldpath or new-
                   path is not, in fact, a directory.

           ENOMEM  Insufficient kernel memory was available.

           EROFS   The file is on a read-only filesystem.

           EEXIST  newpath already exists.

           EMLINK  The file referred to by oldpath  already  has  the

    Linux                     17 August 1994                        1

    LINK(2)             Linux Programmer's Manual             LINK(2)

                   maximum number of links to it.

           ELOOP   oldpath  or newpath contains a reference to a cir-
                   cular symbolic link,  ie  a  symbolic  link  whose
                   expansion contains a reference to itself.

           ENOSPC  The device containing the file has no room for the
                   new directory entry.

           EPERM   oldpath is the .  or  ..  entry of a directory.

    NOTES
           Hard links, as created by link, cannot  span  filesystems.
           Use symlink if this is required.

    CONFORMING TO
           SVID, AT&T, POSIX, BSD 4.3

    BUGS
           On  NFS file systems, the return code may be wrong in case
           the NFS server performs the link creation and dies  before
           it  can  say  so.  Use stat(2) to find out if the link got
           created.

### SEE ALSO

symlink, unlink, rename, open, stat, ln,

###

    Linux                     17 August 1994                        2

Top | Master Index | Keywords | Functions

This manual page was brought to you by mjl_man V-2.0