How to get the absolute path of a symbolic link

[ZWcarp]

In perl, when you use the readlink function on a symbolic link it doesn't seem to work them same as when you use the unix command readlink -m. How do you get the absolute path of a symbolic link in perl ? Is there a way without using additional modules?

[morgon]

Use Cwd::abs_path to get an absolute path.

Cwd is a core-module so you don't need to install anything extra.

use Cwd qw(abs_path);
my $absolute_path = abs_path (readlink $link);

[2teez]

Just like the previous answer stated, Cwd qw(abs_path) would do the job just as realpath from the same module would do.
However, one really do not need the readlink function anymore because "..Symbolic links and relative-path components ("." and "..") are resolved to return the canonical pathname.." -- perldoc Cwd.


   use Cwd qw(abs_path realpath);
   #....

   my $absolute_path = abs_path($link);
   # or ...
   my $absolute_path = realpath($link);