REALPATH(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 26 versions
, in arch rolling

🌸 REALPATH 💖

okay bestie, welcome to realpath — the manual page for the realpath(1) command, living under User Commands. it's the glow-up machine for your file paths. let's go ✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

realpath — print the resolved path. that's it. that's the whole job. she resolves, she prints, she slays 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

realpath [OPTION]... FILE...

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Print the resolved absolute file name. absolute. no more ../.. nonsense. no more vibes-based paths. she takes what you give her and hands back the truth 💖

now, the flags. there are a bunch and they all matter, so pay attention bestie 🫶

  • -E, --canonicalize — all but the last component must exist. this is the default btw, so if you don't pick anything, this is what you're getting 👑
  • -e, --canonicalize-existing — every single component of the path must exist. all of them. no stragglers, no missing pieces. strict queen energy 💅
  • -m, --canonicalize-missing — no path components need exist, and they don't need to be a directory either. she'll resolve it anyway, zero questions asked 🙈
  • -L, --logical — resolve the .. components before symlinks. logical girly brain 🧠✨
  • -P, --physical — resolve symlinks as they're encountered. this is also the default, so yeah, physical stays winning 🏆
  • -q, --quiet — suppress most error messages. she's not gonna yell at you, she's just gonna sit there quietly and judge silently 🤫
  • --relative-to=DIR — print the resolved path relative to DIR. so she's not absolute about it, she's relative. it's giving "it's complicated" 💀
  • --relative-base=DIR — print absolute paths unless the paths are below DIR. conditional queen 🎀
  • -s, --strip, --no-symlinks — don't expand symlinks. leave them exactly where they are, untouched, unbothered, main character energy 🌈
  • -z, --zero — end each output line with a NUL, not a newline. for when you need your paths NUL-terminated, iykyk 🍓
  • --help — display this help and exit. always read the help bestie, it's free therapy 🫶
  • --version — output version information and exit. flex the version, then bounce ✨

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Written by Padraig Brady. we love him, we thank him, we stan 👑

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

found a bug? don't suffer in silence, tell the girlies:

fr fr, if something's broken, report it. that's how the whole thing gets better 💖

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.

no cap, the no-warranty part is real. read it twice 🙈

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/realpath> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) realpath invocation'

and that's the whole page bestie 🎀 this was GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026, and yes she really is called REALPATH(1). mwah, go resolve something pretty 💅✨🦋

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