symlink.2 clarification of ENOENT

symlink.2 clarification of ENOENT

[Jonny Grant]

Hi Michael

http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/symlink.2.html

I saw that [linkpath] being the empty string "" also returns ENOENT. I
feel worth clariying:

Current text:
"ENOENT A directory component in linkpath does not exist or is a
              dangling symbolic link, or target is the empty string."

Proposed new text:
"ENOENT target or linkpath are empty strings. Or a directory component
in linkpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link."


I tested with
    result = symlink("", NULL);
    printf("symlink: '' NULL: %d, %d, '%s'\n", result, errno, strerror(errno));

Output:
symlink: '' NULL: -1, 2, 'No such file or directory'

-- 
Jonny  jg-hus3n9K41k0@public.gmane.org
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Re: symlink.2 clarification of ENOENT

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

Hello Jonny,

On 9 October 2014 at 13:22, Jonny Grant <jg-hus3n9K41k0@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi Michael
>
> http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/symlink.2.html
>
> I saw that [linkpath] being the empty string "" also returns ENOENT. I
> feel worth clariying:
>
> Current text:
> "ENOENT A directory component in linkpath does not exist or is a
>               dangling symbolic link, or target is the empty string."
>
> Proposed new text:
> "ENOENT target or linkpath are empty strings. Or a directory component
> in linkpath does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link."

Thanks. Yes, POSIX actually explicitly notes that ENOENT occurs if the
second argument is an empty string. I added this point to the man
page.

Cheers,

Michael


> I tested with
>     result = symlink("", NULL);
>     printf("symlink: '' NULL: %d, %d, '%s'\n", result, errno, strerror(errno));
>
> Output:
> symlink: '' NULL: -1, 2, 'No such file or directory'
>
> --
> Jonny  jg-hus3n9K41k0@public.gmane.org



-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
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