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READLINK

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-f'-f, --canonicalizeX'tty: link'

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-e'-e, --canonicalize-existingX'tty: link'

canonicalize by following every symlink in every component of the given name recursively; all components must exist

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-m'-m, --canonicalize-missingX'tty: link'

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

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-n'-n, --no-newlineX'tty: link'

do not output the trailing delimiter

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-q'-q, --quietX'tty: link'

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-s'-s, --silentX'tty: link'

suppress most error messages (on by default if POSIXLY_CORRECT is not set)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-v'-v, --verboseX'tty: link'

report error messages (on by default if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#readlin-z'-z, --zeroX'tty: link'

end each output line with NUL, not newline

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/readlink#readlin-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/readlink#readlin-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

AUTHOR

Written by Dmitry V. Levin.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

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

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

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO