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Manual Reference Pages  - READLINK (2)

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readlink - read value of a symbolic link

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Errors

#include <unistd.h>

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

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. It will truncate the contents (to a length of bufsiz characters), in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.

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 errno.

ENOTDIR
	A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
EINVAL	bufsiz is not positive.
ENAMETOOLONG
	A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.
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 file system.
EFAULT	buf extends outside the process’s allocated address space.
ENOMEM	Insufficient kernel memory was available.

X/OPEN, 4.4BSD (the readlink function call appeared in 4.2BSD).

stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2)

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