.\" Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
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.\" provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
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.\" @(#)rename.2 6.5 (Berkeley) %G%
rename \- change the name of a file
exists, then it is first removed.
must be of the same type (that is, both directories or both
non-directories), and must reside on the same file system.
guarantees that an instance of
will always exist, even if the system should crash in
the middle of the operation.
If the final component of
the symbolic link is renamed,
not the file or directory to which it points.
The system can deadlock if a loop in the file system graph is present.
This loop takes the form of an entry in directory \*(lqa\*(rq,
being a hard link to directory \*(lqb\*(rq, and an entry in
directory \*(lqb\*(rq, say \*(lqb/bar\*(rq, being a hard link
to directory \*(lqa\*(rq.
When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
perform \*(lqrename a/foo b/bar\*(rq and \*(lqrename b/bar a/foo\*(rq,
the system may deadlock attempting to lock
both directories for modification.
Hard links to directories should be
replaced by symbolic links by the system administrator.
A 0 value is returned if the operation succeeds, otherwise
returns \-1 and the global variable
indicates the reason for the failure.
will fail and neither of the argument files will be
affected if any of the following are true:
Either pathname contains a character with the high-order bit set.
A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters,
or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
A component of the \fIfrom\fP path does not exist,
or a path prefix of \fIto\fP does not exist.
A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
that denies write permission.
The directory containing \fIfrom\fP is marked sticky,
and neither the containing directory nor \fIfrom\fP
are owned by the effective user ID.
The \fIto\fP file exists,
the directory containing \fIto\fP is marked sticky,
and neither the containing directory nor \fIto\fP
are owned by the effective user ID.
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating either pathname.
A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
is a directory, but \fIto\fP is not a directory.
is a directory, but \fIfrom\fP is not a directory.
The link named by \fIto\fP and the file named by \fIfrom\fP
are on different logical devices (file systems). Note that this error
code will not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device
The directory in which the entry for the new name is being placed
cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
system containing the directory.
The directory in which the entry for the new name
is being placed cannot be extended because the
user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
containing the directory has been exhausted.
An I/O error occurred while making or updating a directory entry.
The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
points outside the process's allocated address space.
or an attempt is made to rename ``.'' or ``..''.
is a directory and is not empty.