Files and directories

`realpath`

Print the absolute, canonical path of a file, with symlinks, . and .. resolved.

realpath [OPTION...] FILE...

9 of 9 examples run in Debian 13.7 on 2026-10-31 · coreutils 9.7-3 · manual: realpath(1)

realpath turns any path into an absolute one with no ., no .., no repeated slashes and no symbolic links. It answers "where exactly is this file?", which is what scripts need before comparing two paths, storing a path in a config file, or finding their own location.

By default every component except the last must exist. -m drops that requirement and works on pure strings; -e requires that all of it exists. -s keeps symlinks unresolved, and --relative-to computes a relative path between two places, something no other standard tool does as easily.

readlink -f overlaps heavily with realpath; on GNU systems they share code.

Examples

Absolute path of a file

$ realpath notes.txt

explain

output

/home/dev/demo/notes.txt

The relative name is resolved from the current directory, /home/dev/demo.

Resolve a symbolic link

$ realpath link-to-notes

explain

output

/home/dev/demo/notes.txt

The link is followed, so the result names the real file, notes.txt.

Clean up . and ..

$ realpath ./src/lib/../../data//users.csv

explain

output

/home/dev/demo/data/users.csv

.. steps are applied, . and the double slash disappear.

Keep symlinks as they are

$ realpath -s link-to-notes src/../link-to-notes

explain

output

/home/dev/demo/link-to-notes
/home/dev/demo/link-to-notes

-s (--no-symlinks) makes the path absolute and removes .. textually, but leaves the link itself unresolved.

Paths that do not exist yet

$ realpath build/output/app
> realpath -m build/output/app

output

realpath: build/output/app: No such file or directory
/home/dev/demo/build/output/app

By default only the last component may be missing. build/ does not exist either, so the first call prints an error (and would exit with 1). -m resolves the path as a string and succeeds, which is what you want for a file you are about to create.

Require that the file exists

$ realpath -e notes.md

explain

outputexit 1

realpath: notes.md: No such file or directory

-e makes even a missing last component an error, which turns realpath into an existence check that also gives you the canonical name.

Compute a relative path between two places

$ realpath --relative-to=src/lib data/users.csv
> realpath --relative-to=. /home/dev/demo/logs/app.log

output

../../data/users.csv
logs/app.log

--relative-to=DIR prints the path as seen from DIR, which is exactly what you need when writing a relative symlink or an include path.

A script's real directory, even through a symlink

Setup run before this example

mkdir -p bin
ln -s ../scripts/greet.sh bin/greet

$ echo "$(dirname "bin/greet")"
> echo "$(dirname "$(realpath bin/greet)")"

output

bin
/home/dev/demo/scripts

dirname alone reports where the link is; realpath first resolves the link, so the second line is where the script really lives.

Check whether two paths are the same file

$ a=$(realpath link-to-notes)
> b=$(realpath ./src/../notes.txt)
> [ "$a" = "$b" ] && echo "same file: $a"

output

same file: /home/dev/demo/notes.txt

Canonical paths can be compared as strings. (For hard links, compare inode numbers with stat instead.)

Common pitfalls

realpath resolves .. after following symlinks, so realpath link/.. is the parent of the link's target. Use -s (or -L) if you mean the logical parent.
Command substitution strips trailing newlines, so a file name that ends in a newline cannot survive $(realpath ...); such names are rare but -z exists for that case.

GNU vs BSD and macOS

The examples above ran the GNU/Linux version. These are the differences that matter on macOS and the BSDs (written from their documentation, not run here).

macOS has a realpath since macOS 13 (Ventura), but without GNU options such as -m, -s or --relative-to; older macOS has none. Install coreutils (grealpath) for the GNU version.

Options worth knowing

A selection, described in our own words. For the full list, see realpath(1) or realpath --help.

Option	What it does
`-e, --canonicalize-existing`	Every component, including the last, must exist.
`-m, --canonicalize-missing`	No component needs to exist.
`-s, --no-symlinks`	Do not resolve symlinks; only make the path absolute and tidy.
`-L, --logical`	Resolve .. before symlinks.
`-P, --physical`	Resolve symlinks as they are met (the default).
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress most error messages.
`--relative-to DIR`	Print the result relative to DIR.
`--relative-base DIR`	Print relative paths only for files under DIR, absolute otherwise.
`-z, --zero`	End each output line with a NUL byte.

Examples

Common pitfalls

GNU vs BSD and macOS

Options worth knowing

Related