realpath

REALPATH(1)                         Debian                         REALPATH(1)



NAME
       realpath - return the canonicalised absolute pathname

SYNOPSIS
       realpath [-s|--strip] [-z|--zero]  filename  ...
       realpath --h|--help
       realpath --v|--version

DESCRIPTION
       realpath converts each filename argument to an absolute pathname, which
       has no components that are symbolic links  or  the  special  .   or  ..
       directory entries.  (See realpath(3) for more information.)
       Please  note that mostly the same functionality is provided by the `-f'
       option of the readlink(1) command.

       When the -s option is used realpath only removes the .  and ..   direc‐
       tories,  but  not  symbolic links from filename.  If the given filename
       argument is relative (i.e.  does  not  start  with  `/'),  realpath  -s
       prepends  to  it  the  current  directory  name  as  obtained  from the
       getcwd(2) system call before further processing.

       Each converted pathname is output to the standard output,  on  its  own
       line.

OPTIONS
       -s, --strip
            Only  strip  .   and  ..,  components, but do not resolve symbolic
            links.

       -z, --zero
            Separate output filenames with the null character instead of  new‐
            line, so it can be used with the `-0' option of xargs(1).

       -h, --help
            Print short usage information.

       -v, --version
            Show realpath's version number.

EXAMPLES
       For  the  examples  below let's suppose that /usr/bin/X11 is a symbolic
       link, pointing to directory /usr/bin.

   Example 1
       Regardless of what the current directory is
           realpath /../usr/bin/X11/./xterm
       prints
           /usr/bin/xterm
       but
           realpath -s /../usr/bin/X11/./xterm
       outputs
           /usr/bin/X11/xterm


   Example 2
       When the current directory is /usr/bin/X11 (which is still  a  symbolic
       link to /usr/bin), the output of both
           realpath ./xterm
       and
           realpath  -s ./xterm
       will be
           /usr/bin/xterm


   Example 3
       Providing  that  the current directory is /home/user (and the directory
       exists before and during the realpath run), the  command
           realpath ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file
       will fail with the following error
           ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file: No such file or directory
       but
           realpath -s ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file
       will return
           /home/path/to/some/non-existent/file

EXIT STATUS
       realpath returns a zero exit code when all pathnames were  successfully
       converted.
       In  case  of any errors (e.g. missing or unavailable directories in the
       path), realpath prints error message to stderr and returns  a  non-zero
       exit code.

SEE ALSO
       basename(1), dirname(1), readlink(1), realpath(3)

BUGS
       Hopefully none :)
       If  you find some, please report them via the normal Debian bug report‐
       ing system, see the file /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt in the
       package doc-debian or the reportbug(1) man page.

AUTHOR
       Originally  written  by  Lars  Wirzenius , as a part of the
       dwww package.  Robert Luberda   currently  maintains
       and extends it.

       realpath  is licensed via the GNU General Public License.  While it has
       been written for Debian,  porting  it  to  other  systems  is  strongly
       encouraged.



Debian                         March 29th, 2009                    REALPATH(1)