readlink

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

readlink — Returns the target of a symbolic link

Description

string readlink ( string $path )

readlink() does the same as the readlink C function.

Parameters

path: The symbolic link path.

Changelog

Version	Description
5.3.0	This function is now available on Windows platforms (Vista, Server 2008 or greater).

Return Values

Returns the contents of the symbolic link path or FALSE on error.

Examples

Example #1 readlink() example


<?php

// output e.g. /boot/vmlinux-2.4.20-xfs
echo readlink('/vmlinuz');

?>


This will trigger a warning and return false if you pass it a non-symlink.  If the file doesn't exist, it will trigger a differently worded warning.



mslade@jupiter ~$ touch a

mslade@jupiter ~$ ln -s a b

mslade@jupiter ~$ ls -l {a,b}

-rw------- 1 mslade mslade 0 2009-06-10 15:27 a

lrwxrwxrwx 1 mslade mslade 1 2009-06-10 15:27 b -> a

mslade@jupiter ~$ php -r "var_dump(readlink('b'));"

string(1) "a"

mslade@jupiter ~$ php -r "var_dump(readlink('a'));"



Warning: readlink(): Invalid argument in Command line code on line 1

bool(false)

mslade@jupiter ~$ php -r "var_dump(readlink('c'));"



Warning: readlink(): No such file or directory in Command line code on line 1

bool(false)

down

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mookowg at gmail dot com ¶

2 years ago


In case anyone was getting confused:

     This is NOT the coreutil "readlink".

 

realpath("./path/of/file") is equivalent to readlink -e ./path/of/file

which FYI i think is a terrible design choice choice, since the functionality

of readline -f is hard to mimic, but readline -e is NOT

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