man namei (Commandes) - follow a pathname until a terminal point is found
NAME
namei - follow a pathname until a terminal point is found
SYNOPSIS
namei [-mx] pathname [ pathname ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Namei uses its arguments as pathnames to any type of Unix file (symlinks, files, directories, and so forth). Namei then follows each pathname until a terminal point is found (a file, directory, char device, etc). If it finds a symbolic link, we show the link, and start following it, indenting the output to show the context.
This program is useful for finding a "too many levels of symbolic links" problems.
For each line output, namei outputs a the following characters to identify the file types found:
f: = the pathname we are currently trying to resolve d = directory l = symbolic link (both the link and it's contents are output) s = socket b = block device c = character device - = 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
AUTHOR
Roger Southwick (rogers@amadeus.wr.tek.com)
BUGS
To be discovered.
CAVEATS
Namei will follow an infinite loop of symbolic links forever. To escape, use SIGINT (usually ^C).