Have a look at realpath(3). I think it is close to what you want. It is a C interface, so you'd have to write a tiny C program to call it if you want to access it from scripts, etc.
Perl may also have access to realpath thru a module, so it could be embedded in a script that way. I haven't checked. Karl On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michael O'Donnell) wrote: > > Let's call the "canonical" pathname of a given file the > absolute pathname which is "most direct" ie. has no > instances of "." or ".." in it. So, if I have two > directories /a/b/c and /d/e/f and a file named XYZZY in > c, we can refer to it by many different pathnames, both > absolute and relative. For example, assuming we're > standing in directory e all of the following can refer > to XYZZY but only the last is the canonical pathname: > > f/../../../a/b/c/XYZZY > ./f/../../../a/b/c/XYZZY > ../../a/b/c/XYZZY > ../../a/b/../b/c/XYZZY > /a/b/c/../c/XYZZY > /a/b/c/../c/./XYZZY > /a/b/c/XYZZY > > What I'm looking for is something that will provide > the canonical pathname of a file no matter how one > refers to it. I can write a script to do this if I > must but I'm hoping this capability already exists. ********************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: unsubscribe gnhlug **********************************************************
