how to find the target file's full(absolute path) of the symbolic link or soft link in python

python linux absolute-path symlink
duhhunjonn picture duhhunjonn · Jul 10, 2010 · Viewed 58.6k times · Source

when i give ls -l /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-yes-bitmaps.conf 

lrwxrwxrwx <snip> /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-yes-bitmaps.conf -> ../conf.avail/70-yes-bitmaps.conf

so for a symbolic link or soft link, how to find the target file's full(absolute path) in python,

If i use

os.readlink('/etc/fonts/conf.d/70-yes-bitmaps.conf')

it outputs

../conf.avail/70-yes-bitmaps.conf

but i need the absolute path not the relative path, so my desired output must be,

/etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-yes-bitmaps.conf

how to replace the .. with the actual full path of the parent directory of the symbolic link or soft link file.

Answer

unutbu picture unutbu · Jul 10, 2010 
os.path.realpath(path)

os.path.realpath returns the canonical path of the specified filename, eliminating any symbolic links encountered in the path.

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