readlink(2)

readlink -- read the value of a symbolic link

Synopsis

   #include <unistd.h>
   
   int readlink(const char path, void buf, size_t bufsiz);

Description

readlink places the contents of the symbolic link referred to by path in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz. The contents of the link are not null-terminated when returned.

Return values

On success, readlink returns the number of characters placed in the buffer. On failure, readlink returns -1, sets errno to identify the error, and the buffer remains unchanged.

In the following conditions, readlink fails and sets errno to:

EACCES: Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix of path.
EACCES: Read permission is denied on the file named by path.
EFAULT: path or buf extends outside the allocated address space of the process.
EINVAL: The named file is not a symbolic link.
EIO: An I/O error occurs while reading from or writing to the file system.
ELOOP: Too many symbolic links are encountered in translating path.
ENAMETOOLONG: The length of the path argument exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or the length of a path component exceeds {NAME_MAX} while _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect.
ENOENT: The named file does not exist.
ENOSYS: The file system does not support symbolic links.

References

realpath(3C), stat(2), symlink(2)