4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat2/rename.0

RENAME(2)                                                            RENAME(2)


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
       (that is, 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.

       If the final component of from is a symbolic link, the symbolic link is
       renamed, not the file or directory to which it points.

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.  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 neither of the argument files will be affected if
       any of the following are true:

       [EINVAL]       Either pathname contains a character with the high-order
                      bit set.

       [ENAMETOOLONG] A  component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
                      or the entire length of either path name  exceeded  1023
                      characters.

       [ENOENT]       A  component  of the from path does not exist, or a path
                      prefix of to does not exist.

       [EACCES]       A component of either path prefix denies search  permis‐
                      sion.

       [EACCES]       The  requested link requires writing in a directory with
                      a mode that denies write permission.

       [EPERM]        The directory containing from is marked sticky, and nei‐
                      ther  the containing directory nor from are owned by the
                      effective user ID.

       [EPERM]        The to file  exists,  the  directory  containing  to  is
                      marked  sticky, and neither the containing directory nor
                      to are owned by the effective user ID.

       [ELOOP]        Too many symbolic links were encountered in  translating
                      either pathname.

       [ENOTDIR]      A component of either path prefix is not a directory.

       [ENOTDIR]      From is a directory, but to is not a directory.

       [EISDIR]       To is a directory, but from is not a directory.

       [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 implementa‐
                      tion permits cross-device links.

       [ENOSPC]       The directory in which the entry for  the  new  name  is
                      being  placed  cannot  be  extended  because there is no
                      space left on the file system containing the  directory.

       [EDQUOT]       The  directory  in  which  the entry for the new name is
                      being placed cannot be extended because the user’s quota
                      of  disk blocks on the file system containing the direc‐
                      tory has been exhausted.

       [EIO]          An I/O error occurred while making or updating a  direc‐
                      tory entry.

       [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.

       [EINVAL]       From  is a parent directory of to, or an attempt is made
                      to rename ‘‘.’’ or ‘‘..’’.

       [ENOTEMPTY]    To is a directory and is not empty.

SEE ALSO
       open(2)


4.2 Berkeley Distribution        May 22, 1986                        RENAME(2)