namei(1) - Linux man page

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

-x: Show mount point directories with a 'D', rather than a 'd'.
-m: Show the mode bits of each file type in the style of ls(1), for example 'rwxr-xr-x'.

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).