gistfile1.txt

ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ gcc -Wall -o opennofollow opennofollow.c
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ touch x.txt
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ ln -s x.txt y.txt
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ ./opennofollow
-1
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ cat y.txt
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ rm y.txt
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ touch y.txt
ohnobinki@gibby ~/downloads $ ./opennofollow
3

opennofollow.c

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, const char *const argv[]) {
  int fd = open("y.txt", O_RDONLY|O_NOFOLLOW);
  printf("%d\n", fd);
  return 0;
}