| .TH NAMEI 1 "June 2011" "util-linux" "User Commands" |
| .SH NAME |
| namei \- follow a pathname until a terminal point is found |
| .SH SYNOPSIS |
| .B namei |
| [options] |
| .IR pathname ... |
| .SH DESCRIPTION |
| .B namei |
| interprets its arguments as pathnames to any type |
| of Unix file (symlinks, files, directories, and so forth). |
| .B namei |
| then follows each pathname until an endpoint |
| is found (a file, a directory, a device node, etc). |
| If it finds a symbolic link, it shows the link, and starts |
| following it, indenting the output to show the context. |
| .PP |
| This program is useful for finding "too many levels of |
| symbolic links" problems. |
| .PP |
| For each line of output, |
| .B namei |
| uses the following characters to identify the file type found: |
| .LP |
| .nf |
| f: = the pathname currently being resolved |
| d = directory |
| l = symbolic link (both the link and its contents are output) |
| s = socket |
| b = block device |
| c = character device |
| p = FIFO (named pipe) |
| - = regular file |
| ? = an error of some kind |
| .fi |
| .PP |
| .B namei |
| prints an informative message when |
| the maximum number of symbolic links this system can have has been exceeded. |
| .SH OPTIONS |
| .TP |
| .BR \-l , " \-\-long" |
| Use the long listing format (same as \fB\-m \-o \-v\fR). |
| .TP |
| .BR \-m , " \-\-modes" |
| Show the mode bits of each file type in the style of ls(1), |
| for example 'rwxr-xr-x'. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-n , " \-\-nosymlinks" |
| Don't follow symlinks. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-o , " \-\-owners" |
| Show owner and group name of each file. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-v , " \-\-vertical" |
| Vertically align the modes and owners. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-x , " \-\-mountpoints" |
| Show mountpoint directories with a 'D' rather than a 'd'. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-V , " \-\-version" |
| Display version information and exit. |
| .TP |
| .BR \-h , " \-\-help" |
| Display help text and exit. |
| .SH AUTHOR |
| The original |
| .B namei |
| program was written by Roger Southwick <rogers@amadeus.wr.tek.com>. |
| .sp |
| The program was rewritten by Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>. |
| .SH BUGS |
| To be discovered. |
| .SH "SEE ALSO" |
| .BR ls (1), |
| .BR stat (1), |
| .BR symlink (7) |
| .SH AVAILABILITY |
| The namei command is part of the util-linux package and is available from |
| ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/. |
