Node.js determine path targeted by symlink

Question

Note: using Node.js 8

I have a series of symlinks: a -> b -> c

I need to resolve the initial symlink a to its target destination b. How can this be accomplished in Node.js?

The fs.realpath function resolves chains of symlinks, so it resolves a to c. This is not the desired behavior.

I've also attempted to find an npm package to do this, but haven't had any luck so far.

I thought maybe I could fs.open the symlink and read the contents, but I could not figure out how to access the documented fs.constants.O_SYMLINK constant, probably because I'm on Node 8.

[Node 8](https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v8.x/api/fs.html#fs_file_open_constants) documentation also lists `fs.constants.O_SYMLINK`. What is there to figure out? If you type that into the REPL, doesn't it give you a numeric value? — Patrick Roberts, Sep 06 '18 at 23:20

score 14 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 06 '18 at 23:23

14

I searched Node.js documentation for the word "symlink", but the Node documentation just refers to these as a "link". The solution is to use fs.readlink():

const {readlink} = require("fs");

fs.readlink("a", (err, target) => {
    if (!err) console.log(target);    // prints "b"
});

edited Sep 06 '18 at 23:23

Patrick Roberts

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answered Sep 06 '18 at 23:19

rich remer

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Node.js determine path targeted by symlink

1 Answers1