NAME¶

std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink - std::experimental::filesystem::read_symlink

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, 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 a 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 a 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

Example¶

// Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <experimental/filesystem>
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)