realpath(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

REALPATH(3)               NetBSD Programmer's Manual               REALPATH(3)


NAME

     realpath - returns the canonicalized absolute pathname


LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/param.h>
     #include <stdlib.h>

     char *
     realpath(const char *pathname, char resolvedname[MAXPATHLEN]);


DESCRIPTION

     The realpath() function resolves all symbolic links, extra ``/'' charac-
     ters and references to /./ and /../ in pathname, and copies the resulting
     absolute pathname into the memory referenced by resolvedname.  The
     resolvedname argument must refer to a buffer capable of storing at least
     MAXPATHLEN characters.

     The realpath() function will resolve both absolute and relative paths and
     return the absolute pathname corresponding to pathname.  All but the last
     component of pathname must exist when realpath() is called.


RETURN VALUES

     The realpath() function returns resolvedname on success.  If an error oc-
     curs, realpath() returns NULL, and resolvedname contains the pathname
     which caused the problem.


ERRORS

     The function realpath() may fail and set the external variable errno for
     any of the errors specified for the library functions chdir(2), close(2),
     fchdir(2), lstat(2), open(2), readlink(2) and getcwd(3).


SEE ALSO

     getcwd(3)


HISTORY

     The realpath() function call first appeared in 4.4BSD.


BUGS

     This implementation of realpath() differs slightly from the Solaris im-
     plementation.  The 4.4BSD version always returns absolute pathnames,
     whereas the Solaris implementation will, under certain circumstances, re-
     turn a relative resolvedname when given a relative pathname.

NetBSD 1.6.2                   February 16, 1994                             1