READLINK

readlink ? read value of a symbolic link

#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)