Advanced UNIX Programming

Linking Files

This is accomplished by the link(2) system call:

#include <unistd.h>

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

The function returns -1 if it fails and leaves the error code in errno. Upon a successful return, the value 0 is returned.

The following example shows how the function can be used to link the filename a.out to my_app:

if ( link("a.out","my_app") == -1 ) {
    fprintf(stderr,"%s: link(2)\n",strerror(errno));
    abort();
}

Warning

Some UNIX platforms allow link(2) to return the error EINTR (SGI IRIX 6.5 for example).

Note

The st_ctime (create time) value of the file is updated upon successful completion of a link(2) call. The values st_ctime and st_mtime (time of last modification) of the directory containing the ...