Re: A request for addition of a command

[Jim Meyering]

Kamil Dudka wrote:
> On Friday 24 of July 2009 09:15:56 Jim Meyering wrote:
>> > Actually I don't know if we have some utility equivalent to
>> > canonicalize_file_name() function in coreutils now.
>>
>> We do.  It's called readlink:
>>
>> Usage: readlink [OPTION]... FILE
>> Display value of a symbolic link on standard output.
>
> Thanks! I was looking for utility like this several times but unsuccessful.
> Perhaps I was confused by the keyword "symbolic link" in the brief utility
> description. It might be good to also mention the canonicalization ability
> there as it is common use case.

Good idea.

>From 644ffc5886b0a88bbd2dad7da72e75c876acaec4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:33:23 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] readlink: improve one-line summary: prints canonical file 
names, too

* src/readlink.c (usage): Adjust one-line summary.
* man/readlink.x: Likewise.
Suggested by Kamil Dudka.
---
 man/readlink.x |    2 +-
 src/readlink.c |    2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man/readlink.x b/man/readlink.x
index c1d6c5c..79ba758 100644
--- a/man/readlink.x
+++ b/man/readlink.x
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [NAME]
-readlink \- display value of a symbolic link
+readlink \- print value of a symbolic link or canonical file name
 [DESCRIPTION]
 .\" Add any additional description here
 [SEE ALSO]
diff --git a/src/readlink.c b/src/readlink.c
index 2ea30fa..444a02a 100644
--- a/src/readlink.c
+++ b/src/readlink.c
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ usage (int status)
   else
     {
       printf (_("Usage: %s [OPTION]... FILE\n"), program_name);
-      fputs (_("Display value of a symbolic link on standard output.\n\n"),
+      fputs (_("Print value of a symbolic link or canonical file name\n\n"),
             stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -f, --canonicalize            canonicalize by following every symlink in\n\
--
1.6.4.rc2.182.g24de1