The GNU Fortran Compiler: File operations on symbolic links

This section documents the behavior of GNU Fortran for file operations on symbolic links, on systems that support them.

Results of INQUIRE statements of the “inquire by file” form will relate to the target of the symbolic link. For example, INQUIRE(FILE="foo",EXIST=ex) will set ex to .true. if foo is a symbolic link pointing to an existing file, and .false. if foo points to an non-existing file (“dangling” symbolic link).
Using the OPEN statement with a STATUS="NEW" specifier on a symbolic link will result in an error condition, whether the symbolic link points to an existing target or is dangling.
If a symbolic link was connected, using the CLOSE statement with a STATUS="DELETE" specifier will cause the symbolic link itself to be deleted, not its target.