The getFullPath() method shouldn't care whether the file exists or not really. It should just get the current path, and then weave the relative part onto it, taking into account leading '../' stuff of course :-) The old method that getFullPath() replaced *could* assume that the file existed, and some of the platform utils implementations still incorrectly have comments in them to that effect. But in the new world, getFullPath() is called before the file is opened and hence it may not really exist. Is there another API that is just a 'complete path' type of thing that doesn't assume that the relative parth of the path being completed is a currently existing file? ---------------------------------------- Dean Roddey Software Weenie IBM Center for Java Technology - Silicon Valley [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dudley Irish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 03/28/2000 12:39:58 PM Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Xerces-C, HP-UX, current CVS, Exception: Could not determine base pathname of the file You have described the problem exactly. The issue does seem to be with HP's version of realpath. Apparently, when the file doesn't exist, it returns NULL. I haven't had time to check the getFullPath implementations for the other platforms to see if a solution already exists. At this point, I don't know what the correct behaviour for getFullPath is when the file doesn't exist. Maybe somebody can enlighten me. Oh, and just in case somebody is worried about stepping on my toe, I am NOT an HP expert. So if you are and want to step in, consider yourself invited. Dudley Irish