Maybe parsing the output of file on the symbolic link ?
yes, that's what I was thinking. there aren't any functions in pike that will do this, are there?
Why not using pike -e 'write("%s\n", master()->pike_module_path * "\n"); to get the module paths and pike -e 'write("%s\n", master()->pike_include_path * "\n");' for include paths ? I think it's the best way to be sure to get the paths used by the given Pike binary if you have several of the them. Also it reduces the code needed to perform the guess.
that's true, i hadn't thought of that, though I was using pike --show-paths. Also, I never intended this for use when building modules per se, as we should be using pike -x modules. It was just a side effect of working with the code.
I was thinking of this as a way to make it easier for developers to develop apps that use pike, but of course I'm willing to listen to suggestions about it.
besides, once they have this, they can include a pike -x module inside of their application's makefile, right?
Bill