/etc/localtime is a symbolic link. Which THREE commands display the path that the link stores as its target?
LPIC-1 Exam 101-500, objective 104. Devices, Linux filesystems, filesystem hierarchy standard medium
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The options
Choose 3.
Correct ls -l /etc/localtime
Correct. The long listing renders a symbolic link as name -> target, with the stored path after the arrow, and the type character in the mode field is l.
Correct readlink /etc/localtime
Correct. readlink prints the link's contents and nothing else, which is why it is the form used inside scripts.
Correct stat /etc/localtime
Correct. stat operates on the link itself unless -L is given, and its File: line shows the name followed by the arrow and the target.
Not correct cat /etc/localtime
Wrong. Opening the link follows it, so cat prints the binary contents of the zoneinfo file at the other end, not the path.
Not correct find /etc -name localtime
Wrong. find prints the path of the matching entry itself. Without -printf or -ls it says nothing about where a symbolic link points.
Not correct du -h /etc/localtime
Wrong. du reports disk usage. It tells you how much space something occupies, not what a link contains.
Why
A symbolic link's payload is a path string, and tools divide into those that act on the link and those that follow it. ls -l, readlink and stat act on the link by default and therefore expose the stored path; ordinary I/O such as cat, and stat -L or ls -L, follow it to the target instead. The system call behind the distinction is lstat versus stat, and readlink(2) is the call that returns the stored string.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- manual page readlink(1)
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 104 and space the ones you get wrong.
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