READLINK(2) BSD System Calls Manual READLINK(2)NAMEreadlink — read value of a symbolic link
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int
readlink(const char *path, char *buf, int bufsiz);
DESCRIPTIONReadlink() 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 suc‐
ceeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the global
variable errno.
ERRORSReadlink() will fail if:
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} charac‐
ters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} char‐
acters.
[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 translat‐
ing the pathname.
[EINVAL] The named file is not a symbolic link.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from the file sys‐
tem.
[EFAULT] Buf extends outside the process's allocated address
space.
SEE ALSOstat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2)symlink(7),
HISTORY
The readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 4.2 Berkeley Distribution