READLINK(K)             System General Commands Manual             READLINK(K)

NAME
     readlink - display target of symbolic link on standard output

SYNOPSIS
     readlink [-fn] file

DESCRIPTION
     The readlink utility when invoked with the pathname of a symbolic link as
     its argument dereferences the symbolic link and prints the name of target
     on standard output.  If readlink is invoked with an argument other than
     the pathname of a symbolic link, it exits with a non-zero exit code with-
     out printing anything.

     The following options are available:

     -f    Using realpath(h), canonicalize by following every symlink in every
           component of the given path recursively.  Note that the resultant
           pathname might not exist,

     -n    Do not print a trailing newline character.

     The readlink utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

NOTE
     Debian packages using readlink in maintainer scripts must depend on
     debianutils >= 1.13.1.

SEE ALSO
     readlink(k) realpath(h)

HISTORY
     The readlink utility first appeared in OpenBSD.

BSD                             August 18, 1997                            BSD