VOP_READLINK(9)

✨ VOP_READLINK ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the VOP_READLINK page from the Kernel Developer's Manual 💖 this one's a lil kernel function that literally just reads the target of a symbolic link, and honestly? she's giving short and sweet. let's get into it 🎀

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

VOP_READLINK — read the target of a symbolic link

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

first you gotta grab the headers, no cap:

#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/vnode.h>
#include <sys/uio.h>

and here's the actual call, character for character, don't @ me:

int
VOP_READLINK(struct vnode *vp, struct uio *uio, struct ucred *cred);

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so like, this reads the target pathname of a symbolic link. that's the whole vibe. periodt. ✨

here's the lil rundown of the arguments:

• vp — the vnode of the symlink 👑
• uio — the location of the data to be read or written 📍
• cred — the credentials of the caller 🪪

---

🔒 LOCKS 🔒

the vnode should be locked on entry and will still be locked on exit. so like, it stays locked the whole time, bestie, no exceptions 💀

---

🌈 RETURN VALUES 🌈

Zero is returned on success — slay 💖 — otherwise an error code is returned.

---

💀 ERRORS 💀

• [EIO] — a read error occurred while reading the contents of the symlink 😭
• [EINTEGRITY] — corrupted data was detected while reading the contents of the symlink 🙈

---

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• uiomove(9)
• vnode(9)

go read those too, iykyk 💜

---

👑 AUTHORS 👑

this manual page was written by Doug Rabson — iconic behavior, we stan 🫶

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 🌸 this one's from Debian, dated March 30, 2020, and it's the VOP_READLINK(9) entry in the Kernel Developer's Manual — now go read some symlinks, mwah 💅💖🎀