REALPATH(3)

NAME
realpath - returns the canonicalized absolute pathname

LIBRARY
libc

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 “/” characters 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 resolved_name on success. If an error occurs, realpath() returns NULL, and resolved_name 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).

CAVEATS
This implementation of realpath() differs slightly from the Solaris implementation. The 4.4BSD version always returns absolute pathnames, whereas the Solaris implementation will, under certain circumstances, return a relative resolved_path when given a relative pathname.

SEE ALSO
getcwd(3)

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