LINK(2)			  Linux Programmer's Manual		      LINK(2)



NAME
       link - make a new name for a file

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int link(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

DESCRIPTION
       link  creates  a	 new  link (also known as a hard link) to an existing
       file.

       If newpath exists it will not be overwritten.

       This new name may be used exactly as the old one	 for  any  operation;
       both  names  refer  to the same file (and so have the same permissions
       and ownership) and it is impossible to tell which name was the 'origi-
       nal'.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EXDEV  oldpath and newpath are not on the same filesystem.

       EPERM  The filesystem containing oldpath and newpath does not  support
	      the creation of hard links.

       EFAULT oldpath  or  newpath  points  outside  your  accessible address
	      space.

       EACCES Write access to the directory containing newpath is not allowed
	      for  the	process's effective uid, or one of the directories in
	      oldpath or newpath did not allow search (execute) permission.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      oldpath or newpath was too long.

       ENOENT A directory component in oldpath or newpath does not  exist  or
	      is a dangling symbolic link.

       ENOTDIR
	      A	 component  used as a directory in oldpath or newpath is not,
	      in fact, a directory.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       EROFS  The file is on a read-only filesystem.

       EEXIST newpath already exists.

       EMLINK The file referred to by oldpath already has the maximum  number
	      of links to it.

       ELOOP  Too  many	 symbolic links were encountered in resolving oldpath
	      or newpath.

       ENOSPC The device containing the file has no room for the  new  direc-
	      tory entry.

       EPERM  oldpath is a directory.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred.

NOTES
       Hard  links,  as created by link, cannot span filesystems. Use symlink
       if this is required.

CONFORMING TO
       SVr4, SVID, POSIX, BSD 4.3, X/OPEN.  SVr4 documents additional ENOLINK
       and  EMULTIHOP  error  conditions;  POSIX.1  does  not document ELOOP.
       X/OPEN does not document EFAULT, ENOMEM or EIO.

BUGS
       On NFS file systems, the return code may be  wrong  in  case  the  NFS
       server  performs the link creation and dies before it can say so.  Use
       stat(2) to find out if the link got created.

SEE ALSO
       symlink(2), unlink(2), rename(2), open(2), stat(2), ln(1)



Linux 2.0.30			  1997-12-10			      LINK(2)