READLINK(1)

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. When more then one pathname is given, 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.

The following options are available:

-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,

-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. Multiple pathnames have been supported since version 1.23.

SEE ALSO
readlink(2) realpath(3)

HISTORY
The readlink utility first appeared in OpenBSD.