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.\" $OpenBSD: readlink.1,v 1.4 1998/09/27 16:57:50 aaron Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.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 .
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