| NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | VERSIONS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON | The Linux Programming Interface |
LINKAT(2) Linux Programmer's Manual LINKAT(2)
linkat - create a file link relative to directory file descriptors
#include <fcntl.h> /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <unistd.h>
int linkat(int olddirfd, const char *oldpath,
int newdirfd, const char *newpath, int flags);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
linkat():
Since glibc 2.10:
_XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700 || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
Before glibc 2.10:
_ATFILE_SOURCE
The linkat() system call operates in exactly the same way as link(2),
except for the differences described in this manual page.
If the pathname given in oldpath is relative, then it is interpreted
relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor olddirfd
(rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling
process, as is done by link(2) for a relative pathname).
If oldpath is relative and olddirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then
oldpath is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the
calling process (like link(2)).
If oldpath is absolute, then olddirfd is ignored.
The interpretation of newpath is as for oldpath, except that a relative
pathname is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file
descriptor newdirfd.
By default, linkat(), does not dereference oldpath if it is a symbolic link
(like link(2)). Since Linux 2.6.18, the flag AT_SYMLINK_FOLLOW can be
specified in flags to cause oldpath to be dereferenced if it is a symbolic
link. Before kernel 2.6.18, the flags argument was unused, and had to be
specified as 0.
On success, linkat() returns 0. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set
to indicate the error.
The same errors that occur for link(2) can also occur for linkat(). The
following additional errors can occur for linkat():
EBADF olddirfd or newdirfd is not a valid file descriptor.
ENOTDIR
oldpath is relative and olddirfd is a file descriptor referring to a
file other than a directory; or similar for newpath and newdirfd
linkat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16; library support was added to
glibc in version 2.4.
POSIX.1-2008.
See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for linkat().
link(2), openat(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)
This page is part of release 3.41 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 2012-05-04 LINKAT(2)
HTML rendering created 2012-05-11 by Michael Kerrisk,
author of
The Linux Programming Interface,
maintainer of the
Linux man-pages project