NAME

       realpath - return the canonicalised absolute pathname

SYNOPSIS

       realpath [-s|--strip] [-z|--zero]  filename  ...
       realpath --h|--help
       realpath --v|--version

DESCRIPTION

       realpath  converts each filename argument to an absolute pathname, which has no components
       that are symbolic links or the special .  or ..  directory entries.  (See realpath(3)  for
       more information.)
       Each  path component in the filename must exist, otherwise realpath will fail and non-zero
       exit status will be returned.
       Please note that mostly the same functionality is provided by  the  `-e'   option  of  the
       readlink(1) command.

       When  the  -s  option  is  used  realpath only removes the .  and ..  directories, but not
       symbolic links from filename.  If the given filename argument is relative (i.e.  does  not
       start  with  `/'),  realpath -s prepends to it the current directory name as obtained from
       the getcwd(2) system call before further processing.

       Each converted pathname is output to the standard output, on its own line.

OPTIONS

       -s, --strip
            Only strip .  and .., components, but do not resolve symbolic links.

       -z, --zero
            Separate output filenames with the null character instead of newline, so  it  can  be
            used with the `-0' option of xargs(1).

       -h, --help
            Print short usage information.

       -v, --version
            Show realpath's version number.

EXAMPLES

       For  the  examples  below  let's suppose that /usr/bin/X11 is a symbolic link, pointing to
       directory /usr/bin.

   Example 1
       Regardless of what the current directory is
           realpath /../usr/bin/X11/./xterm
       prints
           /usr/bin/xterm
       but
           realpath -s /../usr/bin/X11/./xterm
       outputs
           /usr/bin/X11/xterm

   Example 2
       When the current directory is /usr/bin/X11 (which is still a symbolic link  to  /usr/bin),
       the output of both
           realpath ./xterm
       and
           realpath  -s ./xterm
       will be
           /usr/bin/xterm

   Example 3
       Providing  that  the  current directory is /home/user (and the directory exists before and
       during the realpath run), the  command
           realpath ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file
       will fail with the following error
           ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file: No such file or directory
       but
           realpath -s ../path/to/some/./non-existent/./directory/../or/../file
       will return
           /home/path/to/some/non-existent/file

EXIT STATUS

       realpath returns a zero exit code when all pathnames were successfully converted.
       In case of any errors (e.g. missing or unavailable  directories  in  the  path),  realpath
       prints error message to stderr and returns a non-zero exit code.

SEE ALSO

       basename(1), dirname(1), readlink(1), chase(1), realpath(3)

BUGS

       Hopefully none :)
       If  you  find some, please report them via the normal Debian bug reporting system, see the
       file /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt in the package doc-debian or the reportbug(1)
       man page.

AUTHOR

       Originally  written by Lars Wirzenius <liw@iki.fi>, as a part of the dwww package.  Robert
       Luberda <robert@debian.org> currently maintains and extends it.

       realpath is licensed via the GNU General Public License.  While it has  been  written  for
       Debian, porting it to other systems is strongly encouraged.