use warnings;
use strict;
use Path::Class qw/file dir/;

my $file = file('/tmp/foolink/bar/quz');

my $prev;
while (1) {
	die "doesn't exist: $file" unless -e $file;
	print $file, " is a ", -l $file ? 'link to '.readlink($file)
		: -f $file ? 'file' : -d _ ? 'dir' : 'special', "\n";
	$prev = $file;
	$file = $file->parent;
	last if $prev eq $file;
}

__END__

/tmp/foolink/bar/quz is a file
/tmp/foolink/bar is a dir
/tmp/foolink is a link to foo
/tmp is a dir
/ is a dir