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Deletions are marked like this. | Additions are marked like this. |
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ll="$(LC_ALL=C ls -l "$path" 2> /dev/null)" && echo "${ll/* -> }" |
ll=$(LC_ALL=C ls -l "$path" 2>/dev/null) && printf '%s\n' "${ll#* -> }" |
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However, this can fail if a symbolic link contains " -> " in its target. | However, this can fail if a symbolic link contains " -> " in its name. |
How can I display the target of a symbolic link?
The nonstandard external command readlink(1) can be used to display the target of a symbolic link:
$ readlink /bin/sh bash
If you don't have readlink, you can use Perl:
perl -e 'print readlink "/bin/sh", "\n"'
You can also use GNU find's -printf %l directive, which is especially useful if you need to resolve links in batches:
$ find /bin/ -type l -printf '%p points to %l\n' /bin/sh points to bash /bin/bunzip2 points to bzip2 ...
If your system lacks both readlink and Perl, you can use a function like this one:
# Bash readlink() { local path=$1 ll if [ -L "$path" ]; then ll=$(LC_ALL=C ls -l "$path" 2>/dev/null) && printf '%s\n' "${ll#* -> }" else return 1 fi }
However, this can fail if a symbolic link contains " -> " in its name.