Node.js fs.readlinkSync() Method

The fs.readlinkSync() method is an inbuilt application programming interface of fs module which is used to synchronously return a symbolic link’s value, i.e. the path it is linked to. The optional argument can be used to specify the character encoding of the link path.

Syntax:

fs.readlinkSync( path, options )

Parameters: This method accepts two parameters as mentioned above and described below:

• path: It is a String, Buffer or URL which represents the path of the symbolic link.
• options: It is an object or String that can be used to specify optional parameters that will affect the output. It has one optional parameter:
  • encoding: It is a string value which specifies the character encoding in which the link path is returned. The default value is ‘utf8’.

Below examples illustrate the fs.readlinkSync() method in Node.js:

Example 1:

// Node.js program to demonstrate the
// fs.readlinkSync() method

// Import the filesystem module
const fs = require('fs');

// Create a symbolic link
fs.symlinkSync(__dirname + "\\example_file.txt",
         "symlinkToFile", 'file');

console.log("\nSymlink created\n");

// Get the path of the symbolic link
symlinkPath = fs.readlinkSync("symlinkToFile");
console.log("Path of the symlink:", symlinkPath);

Output:

Symlink created

Path of the symlink: G:\tutorials\nodejs-fs-readlinkSync\example_file.txt

Example 2: This example creates a symlink to a directory.

// Node.js program to demonstrate the
// fs.readlinkSync() method

// Import the filesystem module
const fs = require('fs');

// Create a symbolic link
fs.symlinkSync(__dirname +
    "\\example_directory", "symlinkToDir", 'dir');

console.log("\nSymlink created\n");

// Get the path of the symbolic link
symlinkPath = fs.readlinkSync("symlinkToDir");
console.log("Path of the symlink:", symlinkPath);

Output:

Symlink created

Path of the symlink: G:\tutorials\nodejs-fs-readlinkSync\example_directory

Reference: https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#fs_fs_readlinksync_path_options