PATHCHK(1)

📦
version 0.12.0 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 pathchk(1) — the "is this filename even valid tho" check 🦋

okay bestie, so this is pathchk, a lil tool from the General Commands Manual section of your friendly neighborhood manual pages, and it's about to be your new hyperfixation, fr fr. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

pathchk — Check whether file names are valid or portable 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

pathchk [OPTION]... NAME...

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Check whether file names are valid or portable 💖

that's it. that's the whole job. you hand it some names, it vibe-checks them and tells you if they'd survive out there on other systems. no cap. ✨

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

  • -p — check for most POSIX systems 🫶
  • -P — check for empty names and leading "-" 😭 (yes, the sneaky ones that start with a dash, we see them)
  • --portability — check for all POSIX systems (equivalent to -p -P) 🔥 both modes, all at once, main character energy
  • -h, --help — Print help 🙈
  • -V, --version — Print version ⭐

👑 VERSION 👑

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0 — yes she has a version and yes she serves

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

Check pathnames for validity in the current system:

pathchk path1 path2 ...

Check pathnames for validity on a wider range of POSIX compliant systems:

pathchk -p path1 path2 ...

Check pathnames for validity on all POSIX compliant systems:

pathchk [-p -P|--portability] path1 path2 ...

Only check for empty pathnames or leading dashes (-):

pathchk -P path1 path2 ...
The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project <https://tldr.sh> under the CC BY 4.0 License. Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail. 💀 (it's giving "work in progress" and we respect the honesty)

💜 a lil sign-off 💜

this page is dated 2026-09-25 and lives under the name pathchk(1), so if you're citing her in your little blog post, that's the receipt bestie 🧚 stay valid, stay portable, and remember: check your pathnames before you ship them ✨🍓💖

📦 where this page comes from