pathchk Command

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Purpose

Checks path names.

Syntax

pathchk [  -p ] [ -P ] pathname...

Description

The pathchk command checks that one or more path names are valid and portable. By default, the pathchk command checks each component of each path name specified by the pathname parameter based on the underlying file system. An error message is sent for each path name that meets the following criteria:

  • The byte length of the full path name is longer than allowed by the system.
  • The byte length of a component is longer than allowed by the system.
  • Search permission is not allowed for a component.
  • A character in any component is not valid in its containing directory.

It is not an error if one or more components of a path name do not exist. If a file that matches the path name specified by the pathname parameter can be created and it must not violate any of the above criteria.

More extensive portability checks are run when the -p flag is specified.

Flags

Item Description
-p Checks the path name based on POSIX portability standards. An error message is sent for each path name that meets the following criteria:
  • The byte length of the full path name is longer than allowed by POSIX standards.
  • The byte length of a component is longer than allowed by POSIX standards.
  • A character in any component is not in the portable file name character set.
-P Checks the pathname operand and returns an error message if the pathname operand meets the following criteria:
  • The pathname operand contains a component whose first character is the hyphen character.
  • The pathname operands are empty.

Exit Status

This command returns the following exit values:

Item Description
0 All pathname operands passed all of the checks.
>0 An error occurred.

Examples

  1. To check the validity and portability of the /home/bob/work/tempfiles path name on your system, enter: 
    pathchk /home/bob/work/tempfiles
  2. To check the validity and portability of the /home/bob/temp path name for POSIX standards, enter: 
    pathchk -p /home/bob/temp

Files

Item Description
/usr/bin/pathchk Contains the pathchk command.