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28 .\" @(#)rename.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
36 .Nd change the name of a file
42 .Fn rename "const char *from" "const char *to"
53 exists, it is first removed.
58 must be of the same type (that is, both directories or both
59 non-directories), and must reside on the same file system.
66 already exists, an instance of
68 will always exist, even if the system should crash in
69 the middle of the operation.
71 If the final component of
74 the symbolic link is renamed,
75 not the file or directory to which it points.
77 .\"The system can deadlock if a loop in the file system graph is present.
78 .\"This loop takes the form of an entry in directory
82 .\"being a hard link to directory
92 .\"When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
94 .\".Ql rename a/foo b/bar
96 .\".Ql rename b/bar a/foo ,
98 .\"the system may deadlock attempting to lock
99 .\"both directories for modification.
100 .\"Hard links to directories should be
101 .\"replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator.
108 will fail and neither of the argument files will be
111 .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
112 A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
113 or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
122 A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
124 The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
125 that denies write permission.
127 The file pointed at by the
129 argument has its immutable, undeletable or append-only flag set, see the
131 manual page for more information.
133 The parent directory of the file pointed at by the
135 argument has its immutable or append-only flag set.
137 The parent directory of the file pointed at by the
139 argument has its immutable flag set.
141 The directory containing
144 and neither the containing directory nor
146 are owned by the effective user ID.
148 The file pointed at by the
152 the directory containing
155 and neither the containing directory nor
157 are owned by the effective user ID.
159 Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating either pathname.
161 A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
179 and the file named by
181 are on different logical devices (file systems).
183 code will not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device
186 The directory in which the entry for the new name is being placed
187 cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
188 system containing the directory.
190 The directory in which the entry for the new name
191 is being placed cannot be extended because the
192 user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
193 containing the directory has been exhausted.
195 An I/O error occurred while making or updating a directory entry.
197 The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
201 points outside the process's allocated address space.
206 is a parent directory of
208 or an attempt is made to rename
216 is a directory and is not empty.
225 system call is expected to conform to