xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdlib/realpath.3 (revision 1669d8afc64812c8d2d1d147ae1fd42ff441e1b1)
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31.\"     @(#)realpath.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 2/16/94
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd February 16, 1994
35.Dt REALPATH 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm realpath
39.Nd returns the canonicalized absolute pathname
40.Sh LIBRARY
41.Lb libc
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/param.h
44.In stdlib.h
45.Ft "char *"
46.Fn realpath "const char *pathname" "char resolved_path[PATH_MAX]"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Fn realpath
50function resolves all symbolic links, extra
51.Dq /
52characters and references to
53.Pa /./
54and
55.Pa /../
56in
57.Fa pathname ,
58and copies the resulting absolute pathname into
59the memory referenced by
60.Fa resolved_path .
61The
62.Fa resolved_path
63argument
64.Em must
65refer to a buffer capable of storing at least
66.Dv PATH_MAX
67characters.
68.Pp
69The
70.Fn realpath
71function will resolve both absolute and relative paths
72and return the absolute pathname corresponding to
73.Fa pathname .
74All but the last component of
75.Fa pathname
76must exist when
77.Fn realpath
78is called.
79.Sh "RETURN VALUES"
80The
81.Fn realpath
82function returns
83.Fa resolved_path
84on success.
85If an error occurs,
86.Fn realpath
87returns
88.Dv NULL ,
89and
90.Fa resolved_path
91contains the pathname which caused the problem.
92.Sh ERRORS
93The function
94.Fn realpath
95may fail and set the external variable
96.Va errno
97for any of the errors specified for the library functions
98.Xr lstat 2 ,
99.Xr readlink 2
100and
101.Xr getcwd 3 .
102.Sh CAVEATS
103This implementation of
104.Fn realpath
105differs slightly from the Solaris implementation.
106The
107.Bx 4.4
108version always returns absolute pathnames,
109whereas the Solaris implementation will,
110under certain circumstances, return a relative
111.Fa resolved_path
112when given a relative
113.Fa pathname .
114.Sh "SEE ALSO"
115.Xr getcwd 3
116.Sh HISTORY
117The
118.Fn realpath
119function first appeared in
120.Bx 4.4 .
121