V10/man/man2/link.2

.TH LINK 2
.CT 2 file_inq_creat
.SH NAME
link, symlink, readlink \(mi link to a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B int link(name1, name2)
.B char *name1, *name2;
.LP
.B int symlink(name1, name2)
.B char *name1, *name2;
.LP
.B int readlink(name, buf, size)
.B char *name, *buf;
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Link
and
.I symlink
create a link to file
.I name1
with new name
.IR name2 .
Either name may be an arbitrary path name.
.PP
After
.IR link ,
.IR name2
is entirely equivalent to
.IR name1 ;
it is a directory entry referring to the same file as
.IR name1 .
Only the super-user can make the link if
.I name1
is a directory.
.PP
After
.IR symlink ,
.I name2
is a new symbolic link;
when it is encountered in any path name,
.IR name1
is substituted for
.IR name2 ,
and path name parsing continues.
If
.IR name1
begins with the 
.L /
character, it is interpreted with respect to the
root directory; if not,
it is interpreted with respect to the directory in which
.IR name2
resides.
.PP
Symbolic links are slightly slower than normal links but
may span file systems;
normal links are confined to a single file system.
.PP
.I Readlink
copies the pathname inside
symbolic link
.I name
into memory at
.IR buf .
No more than
.IR size
bytes are copied;
the actual number of bytes read is returned.
The contents of
.I buf
will not be null-terminated.
An error is returned if
.I name
is not a symbolic link.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR cp (1), 
.IR unlink (2), 
.IR stat (2)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
all:
.BR EIO ,
.BR ELOOP ,
.BR ENOENT ,
.BR ENOTDIR
.br
.IR link :
.BR EEXIST ,
.BR EROFS ,
.BR EXDEV
.br
.IR symlink :
.BR EEXIST ,
.BR EROFS
.br
.IR readlink :
.BR ENXIO