Printing full path name for sym links using ls command

rlinuxr · 08-28-2008, 11:15 AM

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
# cat /etc/redhat-release
Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.2 (Carthage)

How do I get the 'ls' command to display the full target path for a symbolic link? For example:

ls -la /dev/iscsi/*

/dev/iscsi/data:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Aug 27 13:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 140 Aug 27 13:48 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Aug 27 13:48 part -> ../../sde

How do I get the full path name instead of "../../sde"?

Thanks.

arizonagroovejet · 08-29-2008, 04:05 AM

I don't think you can. What is displayed is the path that was specified when the link was created. E.g.

Code:

mike@continuity:/tmp$ mkdir -p blah/gah/wah
mike@continuity:/tmp$ touch foo
mike@continuity:/tmp$ cd blah/gah/wah/
mike@continuity:/tmp/blah/gah/wah$ ln -s /tmp/foo foolink_absolute
mike@continuity:/tmp/blah/gah/wah$ ln -s ../../../foo foolink_relative
mike@continuity:/tmp/blah/gah/wah$ ls -l
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mike mike  8 2008-08-29 09:59 foolink_absolute -> /tmp/foo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 mike mike 12 2008-08-29 10:00 foolink_relative -> ../../../foo

If the link was created using relative path then you have to infer it from the location of the link. In your example part is a link to /dev/sde

pixellany · 08-29-2008, 04:23 AM

Learn something new everyday!!

I see one advantage of doing links this way: You can make links within a directory/subdirectory then you can move the whole directory somewhere else and the links are still valid.

colucix · 08-29-2008, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

Learn something new everyday!!

I see one advantage of doing links this way: You can make links within a directory/subdirectory then you can move the whole directory somewhere else and the links are still valid.

Trying on Fedora 9... using a relative path, it does not work on my system. Maybe some shell option to tweak...

Hey, pixellany... you're a moderator now! Congratulations! Are you planning to make a party to celebrate?

rlinuxr · 08-29-2008, 08:12 AM

Thanks everyone.

The link is actually being created using udev rules.

Code:

KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", BUS=="scsi", PROGRAM="/etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh %b", SYMLINK+="iscsi/%c/part"

tethysgods · 08-29-2008, 08:20 AM

If I understand the question....

use "ls -l" rather than just "ls"

theYinYeti · 08-29-2008, 09:07 AM

You'd have to use a shell pipe:

Code:

ls -l | sed -n 's/^.* -> //p' | while read l; do echo "$(cd "$(dirname "$l")" >/dev/null && pwd)/$(basename "$l")"; done

Yves.

rlinuxr · 08-30-2008, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theYinYeti

You'd have to use a shell pipe:

Code:

ls -l | sed -n 's/^.* -> //p' | while read l; do echo "$(cd "$(dirname "$l")" >/dev/null && pwd)/$(basename "$l")"; done

Yves.

Unfortunately, that does not work.

Code:

ls -l /dev/iscsi/* | sed -n 's/^.* -> //p' | while read l; do echo "$(cd "$(dirname "$l")" >/dev/null && pwd)/$(basename "$l")"; done
//sdb
//sdc
//sdd
//sdf
//sde

Valery Reznic · 08-31-2008, 02:32 AM

Why use ls for this ?
readlink -f good a pretty good job

rlinuxr · 08-31-2008, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valery Reznic

Why use ls for this ?
readlink -f good a pretty good job

I was not aware of this command. It works.

Code:

# cd /dev/iscsi/data
# ll
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Aug 27 13:48 part -> ../../sdb
# readlink -f part
/dev/sdb

Thanks Valery and thanks every else for their suggestions.