READLINK(2) MachTen Programmer’s Manual READLINK(2)

NAME
readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>

int
readlink(const char *path, char *buf, int 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 suc-
ceeds, or a -1 if an error occurs, placing the error code in the global
variable errno.

ERRORS
Readlink() will fail if:

[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

[EINVAL] The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit
set.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an
entire path name exceeded 1023 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 file system.

[EFAULT] Buf extends outside the process’s allocated address space.

SEE ALSO
stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2) symlink(7),

HISTORY
The readlink function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 1