man rename (2): change the name of a file

LIBRARY

Lb libc

SYNOPSIS

In stdio.h Ft int Fn rename const char *from const char *to Ft int Fn renameat int fromfd const char *from int tofd const char *to

DESCRIPTION

The Fn rename system call causes the link named Fa from to be renamed as Fa to . If Fa to exists, it is first removed. Both Fa from and Fa to must be of the same type (that is, both directories or both non-directories), and must reside on the same file system.

The Fn rename system call guarantees that if Fa to already exists, an instance of Fa to will always exist, even if the system should crash in the middle of the operation.

If the final component of Fa from is a symbolic link, the symbolic link is renamed, not the file or directory to which it points.

The Fn renameat system call is equivalent to Fn rename except in the case where either Fa from or Fa to specifies a relative path. If Fa from is a relative path, the file to be renamed is located relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor Fa fromfd instead of the current working directory. If the Fa to is a relative path, the same happens only relative to the directory associated with Fa tofd . If the Fn renameat is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the Fa fromfd or Fa tofd parameter, the current working directory is used in the determination of the file for the respective path parameter.

RETURN VALUES

Rv -std rename

ERRORS

The Fn rename system call will fail and neither of the argument files will be affected if:

Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG: A component of either pathname exceeded 255 characters, or the entire length of either path name exceeded 1023 characters.
Bq Er ENOENT: A component of the Fa from path does not exist, or a path prefix of Fa to does not exist.
Bq Er EACCES: A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
Bq Er EACCES: The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode that denies write permission.
Bq Er EACCES: The directory pointed at by the Fa from argument denies write permission, and the operation would move it to another parent directory.
Bq Er EPERM: The file pointed at by the Fa from argument has its immutable, undeletable or append-only flag set, see the chflags(2) manual page for more information.
Bq Er EPERM: The parent directory of the file pointed at by the Fa from argument has its immutable or append-only flag set.
Bq Er EPERM: The parent directory of the file pointed at by the Fa to argument has its immutable flag set.
Bq Er EPERM: The directory containing Fa from is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory nor Fa from are owned by the effective user ID.
Bq Er EPERM: The file pointed at by the Fa to argument exists, the directory containing Fa to is marked sticky, and neither the containing directory nor Fa to are owned by the effective user ID.
Bq Er ELOOP: Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating either pathname.
Bq Er ENOTDIR: A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
Bq Er ENOTDIR: The Fa from argument is a directory, but Fa to is not a directory.
Bq Er EISDIR: The Fa to argument is a directory, but Fa from is not a directory.
Bq Er EXDEV: The link named by Fa to and the file named by Fa from are on different logical devices (file systems). Note that this error code will not be returned if the implementation permits cross-device links.
Bq Er ENOSPC: 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.
Bq Er EDQUOT: 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.
Bq Er EIO: An I/O error occurred while making or updating a directory entry.
Bq Er EROFS: The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file system.
Bq Er EFAULT: Path points outside the process's allocated address space.
Bq Er EINVAL: The Fa from argument is a parent directory of Fa to , or an attempt is made to rename `.' or `..'
Bq Er ENOTEMPTY: The Fa to argument is a directory and is not empty.

In addition to the errors returned by the Fn rename , the Fn renameat may fail if:

Bq Er EBADF: The Fa from argument does not specify an absolute path and the Fa fromfd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for searching, or the Fa to argument does not specify an absolute path and the Fa tofd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
Bq Er ENOTDIR: The Fa from argument is not an absolute path and Fa fromfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a directory, or the Fa to argument is not an absolute path and Fa tofd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.

STANDARDS

The Fn rename system call is expected to conform to St -p1003.1-96 . The Fn renameat system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.

HISTORY

The Fn renameat system call appeared in Fx 8.0 .