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Object Storage Service:Manage symbolic links using OSS SDK for C

Last Updated:Mar 20, 2026

Symbolic links work like file shortcuts on Windows and let you quickly access associated objects in OSS.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • The oss:PutObject permission to create a symbolic link

  • The oss:GetObject permission to query a symbolic link

For details on granting these permissions, see Attach a custom policy to a RAM user.

Usage notes

  • The examples in this topic use the public endpoint for the China (Hangzhou) region. To access OSS from another Alibaba Cloud service in the same region, use an internal endpoint instead. For more information, see Regions and endpoints.

  • The examples create an OSSClient instance using an OSS endpoint. To create an OSSClient instance using a custom domain name or Security Token Service (STS), see Initialization.

Create a symbolic link

The following example calls oss_put_symlink() to create a symbolic link that points to a target object. It reads AccessKey credentials from environment variables, initializes the request options with the endpoint and region, and prints whether the operation succeeded.

#include "oss_api.h"
#include "aos_http_io.h"
/* Specify the endpoint of the region in which the bucket is located. For example, if the bucket is located in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the endpoint to https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com. */
const char *endpoint = "yourEndpoint";
/* Specify the name of the bucket. Example: examplebucket. */
const char *bucket_name = "examplebucket";
/* Specify the full path of the object. Do not include the bucket name in the full path. Example: exampledir/exampleobject.txt. */
const char *object_name = "exampledir/exampleobject.txt";
/* Specify the full path of the symbolic link that you want to create. */
const char *link_object_name = "yourLinkObjectName";
/* Specify the region in which the bucket is located. For example, if the bucket is located in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the region to cn-hangzhou. */
const char *region = "yourRegion";
void init_options(oss_request_options_t *options)
{
    options->config = oss_config_create(options->pool);
    /* Use a char* string to initialize data of the aos_string_t type. */
    aos_str_set(&options->config->endpoint, endpoint);
    /* Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run the sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are configured. */
    aos_str_set(&options->config->access_key_id, getenv("OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"));
    aos_str_set(&options->config->access_key_secret, getenv("OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET"));
    // Specify two additional parameters.
    aos_str_set(&options->config->region, region);
    options->config->signature_version = 4;
    /* Specify whether to use CNAME. The value 0 indicates that CNAME is not used. */
    options->config->is_cname = 0;
    /* Specify network parameters, such as the timeout period. */
    options->ctl = aos_http_controller_create(options->pool, 0);
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    /* Call the aos_http_io_initialize method in main() to initialize global resources, such as network resources and memory resources. */
    if (aos_http_io_initialize(NULL, 0) != AOSE_OK) {
        exit(1);
    }
    /* Create a memory pool to manage memory. aos_pool_t is equivalent to apr_pool_t. The code used to create a memory pool is included in the APR library. */
    aos_pool_t *pool;
    /* Create a memory pool. The value of the second parameter is NULL. This value indicates that the pool does not inherit other memory pools. */
    aos_pool_create(&pool, NULL);
    /* Create and initialize options. This parameter includes global configuration information, such as endpoint, access_key_id, access_key_secret, is_cname, and curl. */
    oss_request_options_t *oss_client_options;
    /* Allocate the memory resources in the memory pool to the options. */
    oss_client_options = oss_request_options_create(pool);
    /* Initialize oss_client_options. */
    init_options(oss_client_options);
    /* Initialize the parameters. */
    aos_string_t bucket;
    aos_string_t object;
    aos_string_t sym_object;
    aos_table_t *resp_headers = NULL;
    aos_status_t *resp_status = NULL;
    aos_str_set(&bucket, bucket_name);
    aos_str_set(&object, object_name);
    aos_str_set(&sym_object, link_object_name);
    resp_status = oss_put_symlink(oss_client_options, &bucket, &sym_object, &object, &resp_headers);
    if (aos_status_is_ok(resp_status)) {
        printf("put symlink succeeded\n");
    } else {
        printf("put symlink failed\n");
    }
    /* Release the memory pool. This operation releases the memory resources allocated for the request. */
    aos_pool_destroy(pool);
    /* Release the allocated global resources. */
    aos_http_io_deinitialize();
    return 0;
}

Replace the placeholders with your actual values:

PlaceholderDescriptionExample
yourEndpointEndpoint of the region where your bucket is locatedhttps://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com
examplebucketName of your bucketmy-bucket
exampledir/exampleobject.txtFull path of the target object (excluding the bucket name)images/photo.jpg
yourLinkObjectNameFull path of the symbolic link to createlinks/my-link
yourRegionRegion where your bucket is locatedcn-hangzhou

Get the name of the target object

To query a symbolic link, you need read permissions on the symbolic link. The following example calls oss_get_symlink() to retrieve the symbolic link and prints the name of the object it points to. The target object name is extracted from the OSS_CANNONICALIZED_HEADER_SYMLINK response header.

#include "oss_api.h"
#include "aos_http_io.h"
/* Specify the endpoint of the region in which the bucket is located. For example, if the bucket is located in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the endpoint to https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com. */
const char *endpoint = "yourEndpoint";
/* Specify the name of the bucket. Example: examplebucket. */
const char *bucket_name = "examplebucket";
/* Specify the full path of the symbolic link that you want to query. */
const char *link_object_name = "yourLinkObjectName";
/* Specify the region in which the bucket is located. For example, if the bucket is located in the China (Hangzhou) region, set the region to cn-hangzhou. */
const char *region = "yourRegion";
void init_options(oss_request_options_t *options)
{
    options->config = oss_config_create(options->pool);
    /* Use a char* string to initialize data of the aos_string_t type. */
    aos_str_set(&options->config->endpoint, endpoint);
    /* Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run the sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are configured. */
    aos_str_set(&options->config->access_key_id, getenv("OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"));
    aos_str_set(&options->config->access_key_secret, getenv("OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET"));
    // Specify two additional parameters.
    aos_str_set(&options->config->region, region);
    options->config->signature_version = 4;
    /* Specify whether to use CNAME. The value 0 indicates that CNAME is not used. */
    options->config->is_cname = 0;
    /* Specify network parameters, such as the timeout period. */
    options->ctl = aos_http_controller_create(options->pool, 0);
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    /* Call the aos_http_io_initialize method in main() to initialize global resources, such as network resources and memory resources. */
    if (aos_http_io_initialize(NULL, 0) != AOSE_OK) {
        exit(1);
    }
    /* Create a memory pool to manage memory. aos_pool_t is equivalent to apr_pool_t. The code used to create a memory pool is included in the APR library. */
    aos_pool_t *pool;
    /* Create a memory pool. The value of the second parameter is NULL. This value indicates that the pool does not inherit other memory pools. */
    aos_pool_create(&pool, NULL);
    /* Create and initialize options. This parameter includes global configuration information, such as endpoint, access_key_id, access_key_secret, is_cname, and curl. */
    oss_request_options_t *oss_client_options;
    /* Allocate the memory resources in the memory pool to the options. */
    oss_client_options = oss_request_options_create(pool);
    /* Initialize oss_client_options. */
    init_options(oss_client_options);
    /* Initialize the parameters. */
    aos_string_t bucket;
    aos_string_t link_object;
    aos_table_t *resp_headers = NULL;
    aos_status_t *resp_status = NULL;
    char *target_object_name = NULL;
    aos_str_set(&bucket, bucket_name);
    aos_str_set(&link_object, link_object_name);
    resp_status = oss_get_symlink(oss_client_options, &bucket, &link_object, &resp_headers);
    if (aos_status_is_ok(resp_status)) {
        printf("get symlink succeeded\n");
        target_object_name = (char*)(apr_table_get(resp_headers, OSS_CANNONICALIZED_HEADER_SYMLINK));
        printf("target_object_name: %s \n", target_object_name);
    } else {
        printf("get symlink failed\n");
    }
    /* Release the memory pool. This operation releases the memory resources allocated for the request. */
    aos_pool_destroy(pool);
    /* Release the allocated global resources. */
    aos_http_io_deinitialize();
    return 0;
}

References

  • PutSymlink: API reference for creating a symbolic link

  • GetSymlink: API reference for querying a symbolic link