READLINK(2)

NAME
readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>

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

DESCRIPTION
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.

RETURN VALUES
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 the global variable errno.

ERRORS

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

EINVAL
    The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.

ENAMETOOLONG
    A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

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.

HISTORY
The readlink function call appeared in BSD 4.2.

SEE ALSO
stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2)