How to get the absolute path of a symbolic link

ZWcarp has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

In perl, when you use the readlink function on a symbolic link it doesn't seem to work them same as when you use the unix command readlink -m. How do you get the absolute path of a symbolic link in perl ? Is there a way without using additional modules?

Comment on How to get the absolute path of a symbolic link

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Re: How to get the absolute path of a symbolic link by morgon (Priest) on Jun 20, 2012 at 17:35 UTC
Use Cwd::abs_path to get an absolute path. Cwd is a core-module so you don't need to install anything extra. `use Cwd qw(abs_path); my $absolute_path = abs_path (readlink $link);` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: How to get the absolute path of a symbolic link by 2teez (Vicar) on Jun 20, 2012 at 19:58 UTC
Just like the previous answer stated, Cwd qw(abs_path) would do the job just as realpath from the same module would do. However, one really do not need the readlink function anymore because "..Symbolic links and relative-path components ("." and "..") are resolved to return the canonical pathname.." -- perldoc Cwd. `use Cwd qw(abs_path realpath); #.... my $absolute_path = abs_path($link); # or ... my $absolute_path = realpath($link);` [download]	[reply] [d/l]