readlink(1) — Linux manual page

READLINK(1)                   User Commands                   READLINK(1)

NAME         top

       readlink - print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names

SYNOPSIS         top

       readlink [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION         top

       realpath(1) is a better command for canonicalization
       functionality.

       Print value of a symbolic link or canonical file name

       -f, --canonicalize
              canonicalize by following every symlink in every component
              of the given name recursively; all but the last component
              must exist

       -e, --canonicalize-existing
              canonicalize by following every symlink in every component
              of the given name recursively, all components must exist

       -m, --canonicalize-missing
              canonicalize by following every symlink in every component
              of the given name recursively, without requirements on
              components existence

       -n, --no-newline
              do not output the trailing delimiter

       -q, --quiet

       -s, --silent
              suppress most error messages (on by default)

       -v, --verbose
              report error messages

       -z, --zero
              end each output line with NUL, not newline

       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

AUTHOR         top

       Written by Dmitry V. Levin.

REPORTING BUGS         top

       GNU coreutils online help:
       <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
       Report any translation bugs to
       <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+:
       GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO         top

       readlink(2), realpath(1), realpath(3)

       Full documentation
       <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/readlink>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) readlink invocation'

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the coreutils (basic file, shell and text
       manipulation utilities) project.  Information about the project
       can be found at ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩.  If you
       have a bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩.  This page was obtained
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GNU coreutils 9.7               April 2025                    READLINK(1)

Pages that refer to this page: basename(1),  dirname(1),  dpkg-realpath(1),  realpath(1),  unshare(1),  mount(2),  readlink(2),  unshare(2),  namespaces(7),  mount(8)

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