.\"	$OpenBSD: readlink.1,v 1.4 1998/09/27 16:57:50 aaron Exp $
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.Dd November 19, 2002
.Dt READLINK 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm readlink
.Nd display target of symbolic link on standard output
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm readlink
.Op Fl fn
.Ar file
.Op ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm 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.  When more then one pathname is given,
.Nm readlink
prints those symbolic links which have been found for the given pathnames.
If readlink is invoked with an argument other than the pathname of a
symbolic link, it exits with a non-zero exit code without printing anything.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width flag
.It Fl f
Using realpath(3), canonicalize by following every symlink in every
component of the given path recursively.  Note that the resultant
pathname might not exist,
.It Fl n
Do not print a trailing newline character.
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm readlink
utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
.Sh NOTE
Debian packages using
.Nm readlink
in maintainer scripts must depend on debianutils >= 1.13.1.  Multiple
pathnames have been supported since version 1.23.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr readlink 2
.Xr realpath 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm readlink
utility first appeared in
.Bx Open .