viewing the full path of the linked file

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi

I am using suse line 9. Some files are soft linked. i am not able to see the full path of the linked file.

Ex:

emdlagora02:/usr/x86_64-suse-linux/bin # ll
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Dec 18 13:18 ar -> ../../bin/ar
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Dec 18 13:18 as -> ../../bin/as
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Dec 18 13:18 ld -> ../../bin/ld
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Dec 18 13:18 nm -> ../../bin/nm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Dec 18 13:18 ranlib -> ../../bin/ranlib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Dec 18 13:18 strip -> ../../bin/strip


is it possible?

[Ivan Ferreira]

That is called a "relative path". It links a file based on the current position. The ../ means a directory above, so, ../../ means two directories above.

So, ar is a link to a file that is two directories above, then descend to bin and there you will find ar.

[Ivan Krastev]

Use find command:

find /usr/x86_64-suse-linux/bin -name "*"

regards,
ivan

[Jozef_Novak]

Hello,

what you can also do is:

# find /usr/x86_64-suse-linux/bin -type l -exec ls -l {} \;

this will give you full path to the link target.

J.

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi

I want to see the actual path of this "../../bin/ar"

how to know the original path of this "../../"

[Ivan Ferreira]

Try using:

which ../../bin/ar

[macosta]

Try 'readlink -m ar'

It will show you the absolute path.

[Suraj K Sankari]

HI,
>>lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Dec 18 13:18 ar -> ../../bin/ar

from your current location do
cd ..
cd ..
cd bin
ll ar

is the location of your link file

Suraj

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi

Still i am not able to see the full path.

# ll kini*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Nov 19 2007 kinit -> ../lib/heimdal/bin/kinit


# readlink -m kinit
readlink: invalid option -- m
Try `readlink --help' for more information.

# readlink kinit
../lib/heimdal/bin/kinit

[macosta · Accepted solution]

It looks like I was working with a newer version of 'readlink' than you have. A SLES 9 system I have available works using 'readlink -f'

If you have further issues with readlink, please consult the manpage.

[H.Becker]

-m is available at least with 'readlink (GNU coreutils) 6.10'

hb:~/sub/subsub$ readlink -m symlink
/home/hartmut/sub/file
hb:~/sub/subsub$

That may be what you are looking for. But, it's not the full path. -m is explained as "canonicalize by following every symlink in every component of the given name recursively, without requirements on components existence"

hb:~/sub/subsub$ echo "`pwd`/`readlink symlink`"
/home/hartmut/sub/subsub/../detour/../file

[Dennis Handly]

>I am not able to see the full path of the linked file.

Why do you care?
Symlinks to relative paths are good, absolute paths are bad. Think of having them over an NFS mount.

The absolute path would be $PWD/../../bin/ar.