🗂️ Advanced Path Handling — Symlinks and Resolution

Master symbolic links, canonical paths, and advanced pathlib features.

🎯 Path Resolution and Canonical Paths

from pathlib import Path

# Resolve symbolic links to real path
link_path = Path("data_link")
real_path = link_path.resolve()  # Resolves all symlinks
print(real_path)  # /Users/alice/data/real_data

# Get current working directory
cwd = Path.cwd()

# Get absolute path
relative = Path("../data/file.txt")
absolute = (Path.cwd() / relative).resolve()

💡 Symlink Operations

# Create symlink
Path("link").symlink_to(Path("target"))

# Check if path is symlink
if path.is_symlink():
    target = path.readlink()  # Get what it points to

# Glob with symlinks
all_matches = path.glob("**/*.txt", include_hidden=True)

🔑 Key Takeaways

• ✅ `resolve()` for canonical paths

• ✅ `is_symlink()` for link detection

• ✅ `readlink()` to follow symlinks

• ✅ Safe cross-platform path operations

• ✅ Use relative paths for portability

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