tag 18179 + notabug
close 18179
thanks
Thanks for the bug report. However this seems to be a
misunderstanding of the available print formats.
Tomasz Pala wrote:
> ~: touch a
> ~: ln -s a b
> ~: stat -c "%n" a
> a
> ~: stat -c "%n" b
> b
> ~: stat -Lc "%n" b
> b
You need %N to show what you are wanting to show.
$ stat -c %N b
‘b’ -> ‘a’
$ stat -Lc %N b
‘b’
> ~: stat -Lc "%n" b
> b
> the last command should return 'a'.
Not quite. The %n returns the file name as handed to stat on the
command line. To get the quoted name dereference if a symbolic link
then you need the %N format.
%N quoted file name with dereference if symbolic link
> To be more verbose:
>
> ~: stat b
> File: `b' -> `a'
> Size: 1 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 symbolic link
> Device: 10h/16d Inode: 60112068 Links: 1
>
> ~: stat -L b
> File: `b'
> Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file
> Device: 10h/16d Inode: 60112022 Links: 1
> [...]
>
> one cannot get the righthand part of dereference only (the same applies
> to %N).
I read the above part several times but your meaning was not clear.
In any case I see no bug in stat.
Perhaps you really want readlink?
$ readlink b
a
$ readlink -f b
/tmp/a
For what I believe you are doing the typical idiom is to use
"readlink" to print the value of the symbolic link.
Bob
