NAMEI(1)							      NAMEI(1)



NAME
       namei - follow a pathname until a terminal point is found

SYNOPSIS
       namei [-mx] pathname [ pathname ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       Namei  uses  its  arguments as pathnames to any type of Unix file (sym
       links, files, directories, and so  forth).   Namei  then  follows  each
       pathname  until	a  terminal  point  is	found (a file, directory, char
       device, etc).  If it finds a symbolic link, we show the link, and start
       following it, indenting the output to show the context.

       This  program  is  useful  for  finding	a "too many levels of symbolic
       links" problems.

       For each line output, namei outputs a the following characters to iden
       tify the file types found:

	  f: = the pathname we are currently trying to resolve
	   d = directory
	   l = symbolic link (both the link and its contents are output)
	   s = socket
	   b = block device
	   c = character device
	   - = regular file
	   ? = an error of some kind

       Namei prints an informative message when the maximum number of symbolic
       links this system can have has been exceeded.

OPTIONS
       -x      Show mount point directories with a D, rather than a d.

       -m      Show the mode bits of each file type in the style of ls(1), for
	       example rwxr-xr-x.

AUTHOR
       Roger Southwick	(rogers@amadeus.wr.tek.com)

BUGS
       To be discovered.

CAVEATS
       Namei  will  follow  an	infinite  loop	of symbolic links forever.  To
       escape, use SIGINT (usually ^C).

SEE ALSO
       ls(1), stat(1)



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