NAME

readlink — print content of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Note: For canonicalization of a path, use the realpath(1) utility instead for better portability.

The readlink utility reads the symbolic link of each path and prints it.

If path is not a symbolic link, readlink errors out.

OPTIONS

-f

Canonicalize path with following every symlink, all but the last path component are required to exists.

-e

Canonicalize path with following every symlink, all path component must exists.

-n

Do not print a trailing separator.

-z

Use NULL byte as separator instead of newlines.

EXIT STATUS

The readlink utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

Assign //example.org/ to foobar and read it:

  $ ln -s //example.org/ foobar
  $ readlink foobar
  //example.org/

SEE ALSO

ln(1), readlink(3)

STANDARDS

readlink should be compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The options -f, -e and -z and support for multiple path arguments are extensions present for compatibility with existing software.

AUTHORS

Haelwenn (lanodan) Monnier <contact+utils@hacktivis.me>