phpman > man > namei(1)

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TLDR: namei (tldr-pages)

Follows a pathname (which can be a symbolic link) until a terminal point is found (a file/directory/char device etc).

  • Resolve the pathnames specified as the argument parameters
    namei {{path/to/a}} {{path/to/b}} {{path/to/c}}
  • Display the results in a long-listing format
    namei {{-l|--long}} {{path/to/a}} {{path/to/b}} {{path/to/c}}
  • Show the mode bits of each file type in the style of `ls`
    namei {{-m|--modes}} {{path/to/a}} {{path/to/b}} {{path/to/c}}
  • Show owner and group name of each file
    namei {{-o|--owners}} {{path/to/a}} {{path/to/b}} {{path/to/c}}
  • Don't follow symlinks while resolving
    namei {{-n|--nosymlinks}} {{path/to/a}} {{path/to/b}} {{path/to/c}}
NAMEI(1)                                    User Commands                                   NAMEI(1)



NAME
       namei - follow a pathname until a terminal point is found

SYNOPSIS
       namei [options] pathname...

DESCRIPTION
       namei interprets its arguments as pathnames to any type of Unix file (symlinks, files,
       directories, and so forth). namei then follows each pathname until an endpoint is found (a
       file, a directory, a device node, etc). If it finds a symbolic link, it shows the link, and
       starts following it, indenting the output to show the context.

       This program is useful for finding "too many levels of symbolic links" problems.

       For each line of output, namei uses the following characters to identify the file type found:

              f: = the pathname currently being resolved
               d = directory
               l = symbolic link (both the link and its contents are output)
               s = socket
               b = block device
               c = character device
               p = FIFO (named pipe)
               - = regular file
               ? = an error of some kind

       namei prints an informative message when the maximum number of symbolic links this system can
       have has been exceeded.

OPTIONS
       -l, --long
           Use the long listing format (same as -m -o -v).

       -m, --modes
           Show the mode bits of each file type in the style of ls(1), for example 'rwxr-xr-x'.

       -n, --nosymlinks
           Don’t follow symlinks.

       -o, --owners
           Show owner and group name of each file.

       -v, --vertical
           Vertically align the modes and owners.

       -x, --mountpoints
           Show mountpoint directories with a 'D' rather than a 'd'.

       -V, --version
           Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

BUGS
       To be discovered.

AUTHORS
       The original namei program was written by Roger Southwick <rogers AT amadeus.com>.

       The program was rewritten by Karel Zak Karel Zak <kzak AT redhat.com>.

SEE ALSO
       ls(1), stat(1), symlink(7)

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY
       The namei command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel
       Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.



util-linux 2.37.2                            2021-06-02                                     NAMEI(1)

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