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oldlinux-files/Minix/1.7.5/MANUALS/CAT3/RENAME.3
2024-02-19 00:21:39 -05:00

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NAME
rename - change the name of a file
SYNOPSIS
rename(from, to)
char *from, *to;
DESCRIPTION
Rename causes the link named "from" to be renamed as "to". If to
exists, then it is first removed. Both from and to must be of the
same type (i.e., both directories or both non-directories), and
must reside on the same file system. Rename guarantees that an
instance of to will always exist, even if the system should crash
in the middle of the operation.
CAVEAT
The system can deadlock if a loop in the file system graph is
present. This loop takes the form of an entry in directory a, say
a/foo, being a hard link to directory b, and an entry in directory
b, say b/bar, being a hard link to directory a. When such a loop
exists and two separate processes attempt to perform rename a/foo
b/bar and rename b/bar a/foo, respectively, the system may deadlock
attempting to lock both directories for modification. On systems
with a symbolic link capability, hard links to directories should
be replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator.
RETURN VALUE
A 0 value is returned if the operation succeeds, otherwise rename
returns -1 and the global variable errno indicates the reason for
the failure.
ERRORS
Rename will fail and nothing will change if any of the following
are true:
[ENOTDIR]
A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
[ENOENT]
A component of either path prefix does not exist.
[EACCES]
A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
[ENOENT]
The file named by from does not exist.
[EXDEV]
The link named by to and the file named by from are on different
logical devices (file systems). Note that this error code will
not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device links.
[EACCES]
The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
that denies write permission.
[EROFS]
The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-
only file system.
[EFAULT]
Path points outside the process's allocated address space.
SEE ALSO
open(2)