xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/stdlib/realpath.3 (revision 0de61e28)
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31.\"     @(#)realpath.3	8.2 (Berkeley) 2/16/94
32.\" $FreeBSD: head/lib/libc/stdlib/realpath.3 251672 2013-06-13 00:19:30Z emaste $
33.\"
34.Dd March 18, 2015
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 stdlib.h
44.Ft "char *"
45.Fn realpath "const char * restrict pathname" "char * restrict resolved_path"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn realpath
49function resolves all symbolic links, extra
50.Dq /
51characters and references to
52.Pa /./
53and
54.Pa /../
55in
56.Fa pathname ,
57and copies the resulting absolute pathname into
58the memory pointed to by
59.Fa resolved_path .
60The
61.Fa resolved_path
62argument
63.Em must
64point to a buffer capable of storing at least
65.Dv PATH_MAX
66characters, or be
67.Dv NULL .
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 components of
75.Fa pathname
76must exist when
77.Fn realpath
78is called, and all but the last component must name either directories or
79symlinks pointing to the directories.
80.Sh "RETURN VALUES"
81The
82.Fn realpath
83function returns
84.Fa resolved_path
85on success.
86If the function was supplied
87.Dv NULL
88as
89.Fa resolved_path ,
90and operation did not cause errors, the returned value is
91a null-terminated string in a buffer allocated by a call to
92.Fn malloc 3 .
93If an error occurs,
94.Fn realpath
95returns
96.Dv NULL ,
97and if
98.Fa resolved_path
99is not
100.Dv NULL ,
101the array that it points to contains the pathname which caused the problem.
102.Sh ERRORS
103The function
104.Fn realpath
105may fail and set the external variable
106.Va errno
107for any of the errors specified for the library functions
108.Xr lstat 2 ,
109.Xr readlink 2
110and
111.Xr getcwd 3 .
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr __realpath 2 ,
114.Xr getcwd 3
115.\" .Sh STANDARDS
116.\" The
117.\" .Fn realpath
118.\" function conforms to
119.\" .St -p1003.1-2008 .
120.Sh HISTORY
121The
122.Fn realpath
123function first appeared in
124.Bx 4.4 .
125.Sh CAVEATS
126This implementation of
127.Fn realpath
128differs slightly from the Solaris implementation.
129The
130.Bx 4.4
131version always returns absolute pathnames,
132whereas the Solaris implementation will,
133under certain circumstances, return a relative
134.Fa resolved_path
135when given a relative
136.Fa pathname .
137