.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" @(#)rename.2 6.7 (Berkeley) 3/10/91
.Nd change the name of a file
.Fn rename "const char *from" "const char *to"
exists, 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
being a hard link to directory
When such a loop exists and two separate processes attempt to
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
.Bl -tag -width ENAMETOOLONG
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 either path prefix denies search permission.
The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
that denies write permission.
and neither the containing directory nor
are owned by the effective user ID.
and neither the containing directory nor
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.
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
is a directory and is not empty.
conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988