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.