std::experi...read_symlink(3)

okay so this is the std::experi...read_symlink(3) page from the C++ Standard Libary manual — yes, the title’s got that truncated std::experi... moment, but the actual function is std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink, and we’re gonna read a symlink’s target together bestie 💅✨

💅 NAME

The NAME line is literally std::experi...read_symlink — std::experi...read_symlink (same truncated name twice, dash between, iconic). In normal words: this is the std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink function.

✨ Synopsis ✨

Defined in header <experimental/filesystem>:

path read_symlink( const path& p );                  (filesystem TS)
path read_symlink( const path& p, error_code& ec );

If the path p refers to a symbolic link, this returns a new path object which refers to the target of that symbolic link.

It is an error if p does not refer to a symbolic link.

The non-throwing overload returns an empty path on errors.

🎀 Parameters 🎀

• p — path to a symlink
• ec — out-parameter for error reporting in the non-throwing overload

💖 Return value 💖

The target of the symlink — which may not necessarily exist 👀

🔥 Exceptions 🔥

The overload that does not take an error_code& parameter throws filesystem_error on underlying OS API errors, constructed with p as the first 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 this noexcept specification:

noexcept

🌸 Example 🌸

// Run this code

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

int main()
{
    // on a typical Linux system, /lib/libc.so.6 is a symlink
    fs::path p = "/lib/libc.so.6";
    if (exists(p) && is_symlink(p))
        std::cout << p << " -> " << read_symlink(p) << '\n';
    else
        std::cout << p << " does not exist or is not a symlink\n";
}

Possible output:

"/lib/libc.so.6" -> "libc-2.12.so"

🦋 See also 🦋

• is_symlink — checks whether the argument refers to a symbolic link (function)
• create_symlink — creates a symbolic link
• create_directory_symlink — (function)
• copy_symlink — copies a symbolic link (function)
• status — determines file attributes
• symlink_status — determines file attributes, checking the symlink target (function)

👑 Categories 👑

• Noindexed pages
• unconditionally noexcept

🧚 Hidden categories 🧚

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

---

that’s the whole page, bestie — source/version is http://cppreference.com, dated 2024.06.10 🫶💖 mwah!