Noted discrepancy between Linux and POSIX.1 when oldpath is a symbolic

link.

man2/link.2

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ be overwritten.
 This new name may be used exactly as the old one for any operation;
 both names refer to the same file (and so have the same permissions
 and ownership) and it is impossible to tell which name was the
-`original'.
+\`original'.
 .SH "RETURN VALUE"
 On success, zero is returned.  On error, \-1 is returned, and
 .I errno
@@ -130,6 +130,27 @@ Hard links, as created by
 cannot span filesystems. Use
 .B symlink
 if this is required.
+
+POSIX.1-2001 says that
+.BR link
+should dereference 
+.I oldpath
+if it is a symbolic link.
+However, Linux does not do so: if
+.I oldpath
+is a symbolic link, then
+.I newpath
+is created as a (hard) link to the same symbolic link file
+(i.e., 
+.I newpath
+becomes a symbolic link to the same file that
+.I oldpath
+refers to).
+Some other implementations behave in the same manner as Linux.
+.\" For example, the default Solaris compilation environment
+.\" behaves like Linux, and contributors to a March 2005
+.\" thread in the Austin mailing list reported that some
+.\" other (SysV) implementations did/do the same -- MTK, Apr 05
 .SH "CONFORMING TO"
 SVr4, SVID, POSIX, BSD 4.3, X/OPEN.  SVr4 documents additional ENOLINK and
 EMULTIHOP error conditions; POSIX.1 does not document ELOOP.