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READLINK(2) System Calls Manual READLINK(2)

readlinkread value of a symbolic link

#include <unistd.h>

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

() 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.

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.

Readlink() will fail if:

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A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
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The pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.
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A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
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The named file does not exist.
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Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
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Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
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The named file is not a symbolic link.
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An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
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Buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.

stat(2), lstat(2), symlink(2) symlink(7),

The readlink function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

BSD 4.2 June 4, 1993 READLINK(2)