readlink for pathlib paths

[smheidrich]

BPO	30618
Nosy	@gpshead, @pitrou, @berkerpeksag, @timofurrer, @miss-islington, @girtsf
PRs	bpo-30618: add readlink to pathlib.Path #8285

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/gpshead'
closed_at = <Date 2019-10-23.22:37:43.806>
created_at = <Date 2017-06-09.23:55:59.670>
labels = ['type-feature', 'library', '3.9']
title = 'readlink for pathlib paths'
updated_at = <Date 2019-10-23.22:37:43.804>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/smheidrich'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2019-10-23.22:37:43.804>
actor = 'gregory.p.smith'
assignee = 'gregory.p.smith'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2019-10-23.22:37:43.806>
closer = 'gregory.p.smith'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2017-06-09.23:55:59.670>
creator = 'smheidrich'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 30618
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['295592', '320335', '324364', '355266', '355271']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['gregory.p.smith', 'pitrou', 'spatz', 'planet36', 'berker.peksag', 'tuxtimo', 'smheidrich', 'miss-islington', 'girts']
pr_nums = ['8285']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'commit review'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue30618'
versions = ['Python 3.9']

[smheidrich]

Is there any reason why there is no equivalent of os.readlink in pathlib.Path? Note that Path.resolve does *not* fit the bill, as it always produces an absolute path, whereas readlink just spits out the symlink target exactly the way it is stored, which may be relative to the symlink itself:

>>> import pathlib, os
>>> p = pathlib.Path("/lib64/libc.so.6")
>>> p.resolve()
PosixPath('/lib64/libc-2.24.so')
>>> os.readlink(str(p))
'libc-2.24.so'

[girtsf]

Just ran into the same thing. I would be interested in adding support for a "readlink" call if a pull request on this would be welcome.

[berkerpeksag]

The resolve() method already solves symlinks, but I think this is a reasonable feature request. I've just reviewed PR 8285.

[miss-islington]

New changeset a01ba33 by Miss Skeleton (bot) (Girts) in branch 'master':
bpo-30618: add readlink to pathlib.Path (GH-8285)
a01ba33

[gpshead]

Thanks Girts!