readlink.3p (7077B)
- '\" et
- .TH READLINK "3P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
- .\"
- .SH PROLOG
- This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
- The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
- the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
- or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
- .\"
- .SH NAME
- readlink, readlinkat
- \(em read the contents of a symbolic link
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .LP
- .nf
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- ssize_t readlink(const char *restrict \fIpath\fP, char *restrict \fIbuf\fP,
- size_t \fIbufsize\fP);
- .P
- #include <fcntl.h>
- .P
- ssize_t readlinkat(int \fIfd\fP, const char *restrict \fIpath\fP,
- char *restrict \fIbuf\fP, size_t \fIbufsize\fP);
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- The
- \fIreadlink\fR()
- function shall place the contents of the symbolic link referred to by
- .IR path
- in the buffer
- .IR buf
- which has size
- .IR bufsize .
- If the number of bytes in the symbolic link is less than
- .IR bufsize ,
- the contents of the remainder of
- .IR buf
- are unspecified. If the
- .IR buf
- argument is not large enough to contain the link content, the first
- .IR bufsize
- bytes shall be placed in
- .IR buf .
- .P
- If the value of
- .IR bufsize
- is greater than
- {SSIZE_MAX},
- the result is implementation-defined.
- .P
- Upon successful completion,
- \fIreadlink\fR()
- shall mark for update the last data access timestamp of the symbolic
- link.
- .P
- The
- \fIreadlinkat\fR()
- function shall be equivalent to the
- \fIreadlink\fR()
- function except in the case where
- .IR path
- specifies a relative path. In this case the symbolic link whose content
- is read is relative to the directory associated with the file
- descriptor
- .IR fd
- instead of the current working directory. If the access mode of the
- open file description associated with the file descriptor is not
- O_SEARCH, the function shall check whether directory searches are
- permitted using the current permissions of the directory underlying
- the file descriptor. If the access mode is O_SEARCH, the function
- shall not perform the check.
- .P
- If
- \fIreadlinkat\fR()
- is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the
- .IR fd
- parameter, the current working directory shall be used and the behavior
- shall be identical to a call to
- \fIreadlink\fR().
- .SH "RETURN VALUE"
- Upon successful completion, these functions shall return the count of
- bytes placed in the buffer. Otherwise, these functions shall return a
- value of \-1, leave the buffer unchanged, and set
- .IR errno
- to indicate the error.
- .SH ERRORS
- These functions shall fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EACCES
- Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix of
- .IR path .
- .TP
- .BR EINVAL
- The
- .IR path
- argument names a file that is not a symbolic link.
- .TP
- .BR EIO
- An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
- .TP
- .BR ELOOP
- A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the
- .IR path
- argument.
- .TP
- .BR ENAMETOOLONG
- .br
- The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
- {NAME_MAX}.
- .TP
- .BR ENOENT
- A component of
- .IR path
- does not name an existing file or
- .IR path
- is an empty string.
- .TP
- .BR ENOTDIR
- A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither
- a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory, or the
- .IR path
- argument contains at least one non-\c
- <slash>
- character and ends with one or more trailing
- <slash>
- characters and the last pathname component names an existing file that
- is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
- .br
- .P
- The
- \fIreadlinkat\fR()
- function shall fail if:
- .TP
- .BR EACCES
- The access mode of the open file description associated with
- .IR fd
- is not O_SEARCH and the permissions of the directory underlying
- .IR fd
- do not permit directory searches.
- .TP
- .BR EBADF
- The
- .IR path
- argument does not specify an absolute path and the
- .IR fd
- argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for reading
- or searching.
- .TP
- .BR ENOTDIR
- The
- .IR path
- argument is not an absolute path and
- .IR fd
- is a file descriptor associated with a non-directory file.
- .P
- These functions may fail if:
- .TP
- .BR ELOOP
- More than
- {SYMLOOP_MAX}
- symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the
- .IR path
- argument.
- .TP
- .BR ENAMETOOLONG
- .br
- The length of a pathname exceeds
- {PATH_MAX},
- or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate
- result with a length that exceeds
- {PATH_MAX}.
- .LP
- .IR "The following sections are informative."
- .SH EXAMPLES
- .SS "Reading the Name of a Symbolic Link"
- .P
- The following example shows how to read the name of a symbolic link
- named
- .BR /modules/pass1 .
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- #include <unistd.h>
- .P
- char buf[1024];
- ssize_t len;
- \&...
- if ((len = readlink("/modules/pass1", buf, sizeof(buf)-1)) != -1)
- buf[len] = \(aq\e0\(aq;
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
- Conforming applications should not assume that the returned contents of
- the symbolic link are null-terminated.
- .SH RATIONALE
- The type associated with
- .IR bufsiz
- is a
- .BR size_t
- in order to be consistent with both the ISO\ C standard and the definition of
- \fIread\fR().
- The behavior specified for
- \fIreadlink\fR()
- when
- .IR bufsiz
- is zero represents historical practice. For this case, the standard
- developers considered a change whereby
- \fIreadlink\fR()
- would return the number of non-null bytes contained in the symbolic
- link with the buffer
- .IR buf
- remaining unchanged; however, since the
- .BR stat
- structure member
- .IR st_size
- value can be used to determine the size of buffer necessary to contain
- the contents of the symbolic link as returned by
- \fIreadlink\fR(),
- this proposal was rejected, and the historical practice retained.
- .P
- The purpose of the
- \fIreadlinkat\fR()
- function is to read the content of symbolic links in directories other
- than the current working directory without exposure to race conditions.
- Any part of the path of a file could be changed in parallel to a call
- to
- \fIreadlink\fR(),
- resulting in unspecified behavior. By opening a file descriptor for
- the target directory and using the
- \fIreadlinkat\fR()
- function it can be guaranteed that the symbolic link read is located
- relative to the desired directory.
- .SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
- None.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IR "\fIfstatat\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIsymlink\fR\^(\|)"
- .P
- The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "\fB<fcntl.h>\fP",
- .IR "\fB<unistd.h>\fP"
- .\"
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
- from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
- -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
- Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
- Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
- Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
- In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
- The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
- is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
- http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
- .PP
- Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
- in this page are most likely
- to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
- man page format. To report such errors, see
- https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .