The readlink command is used to follow symbolic links and get information about them. It is a part of the GNU Core Utilities package and is commonly available on Linux systems. The command takes a path to a symbolic link file as an argument and prints the absolute path that the symlink points to.

Use case 1: Print the absolute path that a symlink points to

Code:

readlink path/to/symlink_file

Motivation: This use case is helpful when you want to determine the actual target of a symbolic link. Symlinks are often used to create shortcuts or aliases for files or directories, and it can be useful to know the path they lead to.

Explanation:

• readlink: The command itself.
• path/to/symlink_file: Replace this with the actual path to the symbolic link file you want to inspect.

Example output:

Let’s say we have a symbolic link file called shortcut in the directory /home/user and it points to the file document.txt located in /var/documents. Running the following command:

readlink /home/user/shortcut

The output would be:

/var/documents/document.txt

This tells us that the symlink /home/user/shortcut points to the file /var/documents/document.txt.

Conclusion:

The readlink command is a useful tool for inspecting symbolic links and getting information about their targets. With it, you can easily determine the path that a symlink points to, allowing you to understand the underlying file or directory that it represents.