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<title>Returns the target of a symbolic link</title>
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<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">readlink</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)</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>
<code class="parameter">path</code></dt>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The symbolic link path.
</p>
</dd>
</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-2924">
<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>
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