READLINK(2)		   Linux Programmers Manual		  READLINK(2)



NAME
       readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

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

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       readlink(): _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 ||
       _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION
       readlink() places the contents of the symbolic link path in the	buffer
       buf,  which has size bufsiz.  readlink() does not append a null byte 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.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  readlink() returns the number of bytes placed in buf.  On
       error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path  prefix.
	      (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EFAULT buf extends outside the processs allocated address space.

       EINVAL bufsiz is not positive.

       EINVAL The named file is not a symbolic link.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.

       ELOOP  Too  many  symbolic  links  were	encountered in translating the
	      pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.

       ENOENT The named file does not exist.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

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

CONFORMING TO
       4.4BSD (the readlink() function call appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
       In  versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of
       readlink() was declared as int.	Nowadays, the return type is  declared
       as ssize_t, as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO
       lstat(2),  readlinkat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), path_resolution(7), sym
       link(7)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2007-07-26			   READLINK(2)