READLINK(2) BSD Programmer's Manual READLINK(2)
NAME
readlink - read value of a symbolic link
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);
DESCRIPTION
readlink() places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer
buf, which has size bufsiz. readlink does not append a NUL character to
buf.
RETURN VALUES
The call returns the count of characters placed in the buffer if it
succeeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the glo-
bal variable errno.
ERRORS
readlink() will fail if:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters,
or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.
[ENOENT] The named file does not exist.
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the path
prefix.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the
pathname.
[EINVAL] The named file is not a symbolic link.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from the filesystem.
[EFAULT] buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.
SEE ALSO
lstat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), symlink(7)
HISTORY
The readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.
MirBSD #10-current June 4, 1993 1