NAME
readlink - print resolved symbolic links or canonical file names
SYNOPSIS
readlink [OPTION]... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
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 if POSIXLY_CORRECT is not set)
- -v, --verbose
-
report error messages (on by default if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set)
- -z, --zero
-
end each output line with NUL, not newline
- --help
-
display this help and exit
- --version
-
output version information and exit
AUTHOR
Written by Dmitry V. Levin.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: <[email protected]>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 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
readlink(2), realpath(1), realpath(3)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/readlink>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) readlink invocation'