View Source: rename(2) - Waikato Linux Users Group

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!!NAME
rename - change the name or location of a file

!!SYNOPSIS
 __#include <stdio.h>__

 __int rename(const char *__''oldpath''__, const char *__''newpath''__);__

!!DESCRIPTION
__rename__ renames a file, moving it between directories if required.

Any other hard links to the file (as created using link(2)) are unaffected.

If ''newpath'' already exists it will be atomically replaced (subject to a few conditions - see ERRORS below), so that there is no point at which another process
attempting to access ''newpath'' will find it missing.

If ''newpath'' exists but the operation fails for some reason __rename__ guarantees to leave an instance of ''newpath'' in place.

However, when overwriting there will probably be a window in which both ''oldpath'' and ''newpath'' refer to the file being renamed.

If ''oldpath'' refers to a symbolic link the link is renamed; if ''newpath'' refers to a symbolic link the link will be overwritten.

!!RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and ''errno'' is set appropriately.

!!ERRORS
;[EISDIR]: ''newpath'' is an existing directory, but ''oldpath'' is not a directory.
;[EXDEV]: ''oldpath'' and ''newpath'' are not on the same filesystem.
;[ENOTEMPTY] or [EEXIST]: ''newpath'' is a non-empty directory, i.e., contains entries other than '.' and '..'.
;[EBUSY]: The rename fails because ''oldpath'' or ''newpath'' is a directory that is in use by some process (perhaps as current working directory, or as root directory, or because it was open for reading) or is in use by the system (for example as mount point), while the system considers this an error. (Note that there is no requirement to return EBUSY in such cases - there is nothing wrong with doing the rename anyway - but it is allowed to return EBUSY if the system cannot otherwise handle such  situations.)
;[EINVAL]: The new pathname contained a path prefix of the old, or, more generally, an attempt was made to make a directory a subdirectory of itself.
;[EMLINK]: ''oldpath'' already has the maximum number of links to it, or it was a directory and the directory containing ''newpath'' has the maximum number of links.
;[ENOTDIR]: A component used as a directory in ''oldpath'' or ''newpath'' is not, in fact, a directory. Or, ''oldpath'' is a directory, and ''newpath'' exists but is not a directory.
;[EFAULT]: ''oldpath'' or ''newpath'' points outside your accessible address space.
;[EACCES]: Write access to the directory containing ''oldpath'' or ''newpath'' is not allowed for the process's effective uid, or one of the directories in ''oldpath'' or
''newpath'' did not allow search (execute) permission, or ''oldpath'' was a directory and did not allow write permission (needed to update the __..__ entry).
;[EPERM] or [EACCES]: The directory containing ''oldpath'' has the sticky bit set and the process's effective uid is neither that of root nor the uid of the file to be deleted nor that of the directory containing it, or ''newpath'' is an existing file and the directory containing it has the sticky bit set and the process's effective uid is neither that of root nor the uid of the file to be replaced nor that of the directory containing it, or the filesystem containing ''pathname'' does not support renaming of the type requested.
;[ENAMETOOLONG]: ''oldpath'' or ''newpath'' was too long.
;[ENOENT]: A directory component in ''oldpath or newpath'' does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.
;[ENOMEM]: Insufficient kernel memory was available.
;[EROFS]: The file is on a read-only filesystem.
;[ELOOP]: Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving ''oldpath'' or ''newpath''.
;[ENOSPC]: The device containing the file has no room for the new directory entry.

!!CONFORMING TO
[POSIX], 4.3BSD, ANSI C

!!BUGS
On NFS filesystems, you can not assume that if the operation failed the file was not renamed. If the server does the rename operation and then crashes, the retransmitted RPC which will be processed when the server is up again causes a failure. The application is expected to deal with this. See link(2) for a similar problem.

!!SEE ALSO
link(2), unlink(2), symlink(2), mv(1)
8 pages link to rename(2):
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Last edited on Monday, March 17, 2003 12:51:49 am by PerryLorier
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