std::experi...te_hard_link(3)

okay bestie, you’re on the std::experi...te_hard_link(3) page from the C++ Standard Library manual, and this one is literally all about making hard links with std::experimental::filesystem::create_hard_link 💅✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

std::experimental::filesystem::create_hard_link — and the NAME line is literally std::experimental::filesystem::create_hard_link - std::experimental::filesystem::create_hard_link 😭 so yes, that’s the function and the page, periodt.

✨ Synopsis ✨

Defined in header <experimental/filesystem>:

void create_hard_link( const path& target, const path& link );
void create_hard_link( const path& target, const path& link,
                       error_code& ec );

This is the (filesystem TS) flavor, bestie 🫶

It creates a hard link link with its target set to target as if by POSIX link(): the pathname target must exist. Once created, link and target are two logical names that refer to the same file (they are equivalent). Even if the original name target is deleted, the file continues to exist and is accessible as link. iykyk 💖

🎀 Parameters 🎀

• target — path of the file or directory to link to
• link — path of the new hard link
• ec — out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload

🌈 Return value 🌈

(none) — nothing comes back, it just does the thing 💅

🔥 Exceptions 🔥

The overload that does not take an error_code& parameter throws filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with target as the first argument, link as the second argument, and the OS error code as the error code argument. std::bad_alloc may be thrown if memory allocation fails. 😭

The overload taking an error_code& parameter sets it to the OS API error code if an OS API call fails, and executes ec.clear() if no errors occur. This overload has noexcept specification: noexcept. fr fr.

🦋 Notes 🦋

• Some operating systems do not support hard links at all or support them only for regular files.
• Some file systems do not support hard links regardless of the operating system: the FAT file system used on memory cards and flash drives, for example.
• Some file systems limit the number of links per file.
• Hardlinking to directories is typically restricted to the superuser.
• Hard links typically cannot cross filesystem boundaries.
• The special pathname dot (".") is a hard link to its parent directory. The special pathname dot-dot ("..") is a hard link to the directory that is the parent of its parent.

🍓 Example 🍓

       // Run this code

        #include <experimental/filesystem>
        #include <fstream>
        #include <iostream>
        namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

        int main()
        {
            fs::create_directories("sandbox/subdir");
            std::ofstream("sandbox/a").put('a'); // create regular file
            fs::create_hard_link("sandbox/a", "sandbox/b");
            fs::remove("sandbox/a");
            // read from the original file via surviving hard link
            char c = std::ifstream("sandbox/b").get();
            std::cout << c << '\n';
            fs::remove_all("sandbox");
        }

⭐ Output: ⭐

a

👑 See also 👑

• create_symlink — creates a symbolic link
• create_directory_symlink — creates a symbolic link (function)
• hard_link_count — returns the number of hard links referring to the specific file (function)

🏷️ Categories 🏷️

• Noindexed pages
• unconditionally noexcept

🙈 Hidden categories 🙈

• Pages with unreviewed unconditional noexcept template
• Pages with unreviewed noexcept template

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Footer source/version + date, bestie: http://cppreference.com — 2024.06.10 💖✨