<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Returns the target of a symbolic link</title> </head> <body><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.readfile.html">readfile</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.realpath-cache-get.html">realpath_cache_get</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.filesystem.html">Filesystem Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div><hr /><div id="function.readlink" class="refentry"> <div class="refnamediv"> <h1 class="refname">readlink</h1> <p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">readlink</span> — <span class="dc-title">Returns the target of a symbolic link</span></p> </div> <div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.readlink-description"> <h3 class="title">Description</h3> <div class="methodsynopsis dc-description"> <span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>readlink</strong></span> ( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$path</code></span> )</div> <p class="para rdfs-comment"> <span class="function"><strong>readlink()</strong></span> does the same as the readlink C function. </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.readlink-parameters"> <h3 class="title">Parameters</h3> <p class="para"> <dl> <dt> <span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">path</code></em></span> <dd> <p class="para"> The symbolic link path. </p> </dd> </dt> </dl> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.readlink-changelog"> <h3 class="title">Changelog</h3> <p class="para"> <table class="doctable informaltable"> <thead> <tr> <th>Version</th> <th>Description</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody class="tbody"> <tr> <td>5.3.0</td> <td> This function is now available on Windows platforms (Vista, Server 2008 or greater). </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.readlink-returnvalues"> <h3 class="title">Return Values</h3> <p class="para"> Returns the contents of the symbolic link path or <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> on error. </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.readlink-examples"> <h3 class="title">Examples</h3> <p class="para"> <div class="example" id="example-2423"> <p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>readlink()</strong></span> example</strong></p> <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000"> <span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// output e.g. /boot/vmlinux-2.4.20-xfs<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #0000BB">readlink</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'/vmlinuz'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span> </span> </code></div> </div> </div> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.readlink-seealso"> <h3 class="title">See Also</h3> <p class="para"> <ul class="simplelist"> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-link.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_link()</a> - Tells whether the filename is a symbolic link</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.symlink.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">symlink()</a> - Creates a symbolic link</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.linkinfo.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">linkinfo()</a> - Gets information about a link</span></li> </ul> </p> </div> </div><hr /><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.readfile.html">readfile</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.realpath-cache-get.html">realpath_cache_get</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.filesystem.html">Filesystem Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div></body></html>