rename a file in c

Question

I was just wondering how could i rename a file on unix platform using a c program without using the standard rename function.any ideas? rename a file in c

Answer 1

The historical way to rename a file is to use link(2) to create a new hardlink to the same file, then to use unlink(2) to remove the old name.

Answer 2

The following is a somewhat ironic solution, that does not use the standard rename(2) system call by itself:

#include <stdlib.h>

if (system("mv file1 file2") != 0)
    perror("system");

It's an indirect usage of rename(2), this syscall is invoked by mv(1).

Answer 3

You can use this:

int rename ( const char * oldname, const char * newname );

Example:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    if ( 0 == rename("old.txt", "new.txt") )
    {
     printf ("Success!\n");
    }

    return 0;
}