Nix Helpers: trace-symlink & trace-which

trace-symlink

#!/usr/bin/env sh

readlinkWithPrint() {
    link=$(readlink "$1")
    p=$link
    [ -n "${p##/*}" ] && p=$(dirname "$1")/$link
    echo "$p"
    [ -h "$p" ] && readlinkWithPrint "$p"
}

a=$1
[ -e "$a" ] && {
    echo "$a"

    # extra print if one of the parent is also a symlink
    b=$(basename "$a")
    d=$(dirname "$a")
    p=$(readlink -f "$d")/$b
    [ "$a" != "$p" ] && echo "$p"

    # follows the symlink
    if [ -L "$p" ];then
        readlinkWithPrint "$p"
    fi
}

trace-which

#!/usr/bin/env sh
a=$(which "$1") && exec trace-symlink "$a"

Example usages:

$ trace-which cloc
/etc/profiles/per-user/hellwolf/bin/cloc
/nix/store/jm2q37h0z0915b52675z47ngjgmwlkga-user-environment/bin/cloc
/nix/store/30b5j6zq93p6xkdnsasr971z5qv1rf3p-cloc-1.94/bin/cloc

$ trace-symlink ~/.nix-profile
/home/hellwolf/.nix-profile
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/hellwolf/profile
/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/hellwolf/profile-67-link