NAME

link — call link function

SYNOPSIS

[XSI] link file1 file2

DESCRIPTION

The link utility shall perform the function call:

link(file1, file2);

A user may need appropriate privileges to invoke the link utility.

OPTIONS

None.

OPERANDS

The following operands shall be supported:

file1

The pathname of an existing file.

file2

The pathname of the new directory entry to be created.

STDIN

Not used.

INPUT FILES

Not used.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables shall affect the execution of link:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See XBD 8.2 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

NLSPATH

Determine the location of messages objects and message catalogs.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

STDOUT

None.

STDERR

The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES

None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

None.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values shall be returned:

 0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

Default.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

EXAMPLES

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

If this utility is directed to create a new directory entry that contains any bytes that have the encoded value of a <newline> character, implementations are encouraged to treat this as an error. A future version of this standard may require implementations to treat this as an error.

SEE ALSO

ln, unlink

XBD 8. Environment Variables

XSH link

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 5.

Issue 8

Austin Group Defect 251 is applied, encouraging implementations to disallow the creation of filenames containing any bytes that have the encoded value of a <newline> character.

Austin Group Defect 1122 is applied, changing the description of NLSPATH .