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.\"     @(#)readlink.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\"
.Dd June 4, 1993
.Dt READLINK 2
.Os BSD 4.2
.Sh NAME
.Nm readlink
.Nd read value of a symbolic link
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <unistd.h>
.Ft int
.Fn readlink "const char *path" "char *buf" "int bufsiz"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Fn Readlink
places the contents of the symbolic link
.Fa path
in the buffer
.Fa buf ,
which has size
.Fa bufsiz .
.Nm Readlink
does not append a
.Dv NUL
character to
.Fa buf .
.Sh 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
.Va errno .
.Sh ERRORS
.Fn Readlink
will fail if:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
A component of a pathname exceeded 
.Dv {NAME_MAX}
characters, or an entire path name exceeded 
.Dv {PATH_MAX}
characters.
.It Bq Er ENOENT
The named file does not exist.
.It Bq Er EACCES
Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
.It Bq Er ELOOP
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
The named file is not a symbolic link.
.It Bq Er EIO
An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
.It Bq Er EFAULT
.Fa Buf
extends outside the process's allocated address space.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr stat 2 ,
.Xr lstat 2 ,
.Xr symlink 2 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn readlink
function call appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .