REALPATH(1)

💅 realpath(1) — the General Commands Manual, but make it cute

okay so bestie, welcome to realpath — it lives in the General Commands Manual section (that's section 1, iykyk) and honestly? it's that girl. she takes a messy path and gives you the resolved version. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

realpath — print the resolved path 🫶

like literally. that's the whole job. she resolves. she prints. iconic.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

realpath [OPTION]... FILE...

options first, then your FILE...s — as many as you want, she's not gatekeeping 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Print the resolved path ✨

that's the vibe. you hand her a path, she hands you back the real one. main character energy fr fr.

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -q, --quiet — do not print warnings for invalid paths 🫶 she's staying unbothered, she's keeping it cute, no drama in the output.
• -s, --strip — only strip . and .. components, but don't resolve symbolic links. so like, tidying only — no symlink detective work. lowkey the lazy-girl option and we respect her for it.
• -z, --zero — separate output filenames with \0 rather than newline. null bytes instead of newlines — perfect for when your filenames are chaotic and contain newlines (unhinged behaviour, but okay 💀).
• -L, --logical — resolve .. components before symlinks. like, deal with the ..s first, then the symlinks. order matters bestie!!
• -P, --physical — resolve symlinks as encountered (default). this is the default so she's already doing this unless you tell her otherwise 👑
• -E, --canonicalize — all but the last component must exist (default). so everything except the very last bit has to actually be there. also the default, she's generous like that.
• -e, --canonicalize-existing — canonicalize by following every symlink in every component of the given name recursively, all components must exist. every single component has to exist, no exceptions, she is checking ✋
• -m, --canonicalize-missing — canonicalize by following every symlink in every component of the given name recursively, without requirements on components existence. chill mode: she doesn't need anything to actually exist, she's just doing the math 🧚
• --relative-to <DIR> — print the resolved path relative to DIR. so you get a path that's relative to DIR instead of the absolute one 🌈
• --relative-base <DIR> — print absolute paths unless paths below DIR. absolute by default, but anything underneath DIR gets to be relative. special treatment for that one directory, periodt.
• -h, --help — print help. your girl is explaining herself 💖
• -V, --version — print version. proof she exists and is thriving ✨
• <files> — the file(s) you're throwing at her. plural. FILE.... she can handle a whole stack, she's built different 🦋

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👑 VERSION 👑

she's all grown up: v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0 🌟

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⚠️ quick vibe check: -P/--physical and -E/--canonicalize are the defaults, so if you don't pass anything you're already running physical resolution with everything-but-the-last-component required to exist. and -s/--strip is the odd one out — no symlink resolving at all, just . and .. being tidied away.

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okay that's the whole page bestie, go resolve some paths and slay 💅🌸

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0 · 2026-09-17 · that's the source, the version and the date — mwah, bye 🎀💜