PATHCHK(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ PATHCHK(1) — the pathchk girly pop 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to pathchk, the little utility from the User Commands corner of the manual that looks at your file names and is like "ma'am. that is not going to work everywhere." 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

pathchk — check whether file names are valid or portable ✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

pathchk [OPTION]... NAME...

like. you give it names. it gives you opinions. the end. 💖

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So pathchk diagnoses invalid or non-portable file names. That's the whole job. She is a name inspector and she takes it very seriously, no cap. 🔍

Here's the tea on her options:

  • -p — check for most POSIX systems 💫
  • -P — check for empty names and leading - 👀 (yes those are cursed, thank you for noticing)
  • --portability — check for all POSIX systems (equivalent to -p -P). this is the "everything shower" version of the check, she's doing both 🚿✨
  • --help — display this help and exit 🌈
  • --version — output version information and exit 🏷️
fr fr: if a name fails the vibe check she will tell you. that is the entire personality. 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Paul Eggert, David MacKenzie, and Jim Meyering. legends, honestly. icons. they ate. 🫶

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Found a bug? Not me being the bearer of bad news but pls tell the devs, they want to know:

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2) Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

⚠️ bestie that last line is not a joke — There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. she's free to use and free to share, but she is not your lawyer. periodt. 💅

GNU coreutils 9.10 · August 2026 · PATHCHK(1) 🌟

and that's the whole page, babe — go forth and check those file names, you absolute main character 💖🎀🦋

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