@node readlinkat @section @code{readlinkat} @findex readlinkat POSIX specification:@* @url{https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/readlinkat.html} Gnulib module: readlinkat Portability problems fixed by Gnulib: @itemize @item This function is missing on some platforms: glibc 2.3.6, Mac OS X 10.9, FreeBSD 6.0, NetBSD 5.0, OpenBSD 3.8, Minix 3.1.8, AIX 5.1, HP-UX 11, IRIX 6.5, Solaris 10, Cygwin 1.5.x, mingw, MSVC 14, Android 4.4. But the replacement function is not safe to be used in libraries and is not multithread-safe. @item Some platforms mistakenly succeed on @code{readlink("link/",buf,len)}: Mac OS X 10.10. @item On some platforms, @code{readlinkat} returns @code{int} instead of @code{ssize_t}: AIX 7.1. @item @end itemize Portability problems not fixed by Gnulib: @itemize @item This function always fails on platforms that don't support symlinks: mingw, MSVC 14. @item When @code{readlink} is called on a directory: In the case of NFS mounted directories, Cygwin sets @code{errno} to @code{ENOENT} or @code{EIO} instead of @code{EINVAL}. To avoid this problem, check for a directory before calling @code{readlink}. @item When @code{readlink} is called on a file that is not a symbolic link: IRIX may set @code{errno} to @code{ENXIO} instead of @code{EINVAL}. Cygwin may set errno to @code{EACCES} instead of @code{EINVAL}. @item Symlink contents do not always have a trailing null byte, and there is no indication if symlink contents were truncated if the return value matches the length. Furthermore, AIX 5.1 and HP-UX 11 set @code{errno} to @code{ERANGE} rather than returning truncated contents, and Linux sets @code{errno} to @code{EINVAL} if the requested length is zero. Use the gnulib module @code{areadlink} for improved ability to read symlink contents. @end itemize