.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"	@(#)rename.2	6.4 (Berkeley) 5/22/86
.\"
.TH RENAME 2 "May 22, 1986"
.UC 5
.SH NAME
rename \- change the name of a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.ft B
.nf
#include <stdio.h>

int rename(const char *\fIfrom\fP, const char *\fIto\fP)
.fi
.ft R
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Rename
causes the link named
.I from
to be renamed as
.IR to .
If 
.I to
exists, then it is first removed.
Both 
.I from
and
.I to
must be of the same type (that is, both directories or both
non-directories), and must reside on the same file system.
.PP
.B Rename
guarantees that an instance of
.I to
will always exist, even if the system should crash in
the middle of the operation.
.PP
If the final component of
.I from
is a symbolic link,
the symbolic link is renamed,
not the file or directory to which it points.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
A 0 value is returned if the operation succeeds, otherwise
.B rename
returns \-1 and the global variable 
.B errno
indicates the reason for the failure.
.SH "ERRORS
.B Rename
will fail and neither of the argument files will be
affected if any of the following are true:
.TP 15
[ENAMETOOLONG]
A path name exceeds PATH_MAX characters.
.TP 15
[ENOENT]
A component of the \fIfrom\fP path does not exist,
or a path prefix of \fIto\fP does not exist.
.TP 15
[EACCES]
A component of either path prefix denies search permission.
.TP 15
[EACCES]
The requested link requires writing in a directory with a mode
that denies write permission.
.TP 15
[EPERM]
The directory containing \fIfrom\fP is marked sticky,
and neither the containing directory nor \fIfrom\fP
are owned by the effective user ID.
.TP 15
[EPERM]
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.
.TP 15
[ELOOP]
Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating either pathname.
(Minix-vmd)
.TP 15
[ENOTDIR]
A component of either path prefix is not a directory.
.TP 15
[ENOTDIR]
.I From
is a directory, but \fIto\fP is not a directory.
.TP 15
[EISDIR]
.I To
is a directory, but \fIfrom\fP is not a directory.
.TP 15
[EXDEV]
The link named by \fIto\fP and the file named by \fIfrom\fP
are on different logical devices (file systems).
.TP 15
[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.
.ig
.TP 15
[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.
..
.TP 15
[EIO]
An I/O error occurred while making or updating a directory entry.
.TP 15
[EROFS]
The requested link requires writing in a directory on a read-only file
system.
.TP 15
[EFAULT]
.I Path
points outside the process's allocated address space.
.TP 15
[EINVAL]
.I From
is a parent directory of
.IR to ,
or an attempt is made to rename ``.'' or ``..''.
.TP 15
[ENOTEMPTY]
.I To
is a directory and is not empty.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR open (2)