rename(2)rename(2)NAMErename - change the name of a file
SYNOPSISDESCRIPTION
The system call causes the source file to be renamed to target. If
target exists, it is first removed. Both source and target must be of
the same type (that is, either directories or nondirectories), and must
reside on the same file system.
If target can be created or if it existed before the call, guarantees
that an instance of target will exist, even if the system crashes in
the midst of the operation.
If the final component of source is a symbolic link, the symbolic link
is renamed, not the file or directory to which the symbolic link
points.
RETURN VALUE
returns the following values:
Successful completion.
Failure.
Neither file is affected. is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
If fails, is set to one of the following values.
[EACCES] A component of either path prefix denies search
permission.
[EACCES] The requested link requires writing to a direc‐
tory without write permission.
[EBUSY] target or source is an existing directory that is
the mount point for a mounted file system.
[EDQUOT] User's disk quota block or inode limit has been
reached for this file system.
[EEXIST] target is a directory and is not empty.
[EFAULT] source or target points outside the allocated
address space of the process. Reliable detection
of this error is implementation dependent.
[EINVAL] source is a parent directory of target, or an
attempt is made to rename the or directory.
[EISDIR] target is a directory, but source is not.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in
translating either path name.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of either path name exceeds bytes
while is in effect, or the entire length of
either path name exceeds bytes.
[ENOENT] A component of the source path does not exist, or
a path prefix of target does not exist.
[ENOSPC] The destination directory cannot be extended
because of a lack of space on the file system
containing the directory.
[ENOTDIR] A component of either path prefix is not a direc‐
tory.
[ENOTDIR] source is a directory, but target is not.
[EPERM] The directory containing source has the sticky
bit set, and neither the containing directory nor
the source are owned by the effective user ID.
[EPERM] The target file exists, the directory containing
target has the sticky bit set, and neither the
containing directory nor the target are owned by
the effective user ID.
[EROFS] The requested link requires writing in a direc‐
tory on a read-only file system.
[EXDEV] The paths named by source and target are on dif‐
ferent logical devices (file systems).
AUTHOR
was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSOopen(2).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCErename(2)
