xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/stdlib/realpath.3 (revision cecf84d4)
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31.\"	$OpenBSD: realpath.3,v 1.19 2014/01/20 22:40:06 schwarze Exp $
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: January 20 2014 $
34.Dt REALPATH 3
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm realpath
38.Nd returns the canonicalized absolute pathname
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In limits.h
41.In stdlib.h
42.Ft "char *"
43.Fn realpath "const char *pathname" "char *resolved"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn realpath
47function resolves all symbolic links, extra
48.Dq /
49characters and references to
50.Pa /./
51and
52.Pa /../
53in
54.Fa pathname ,
55and copies the resulting absolute pathname into the memory referenced by
56.Fa resolved .
57The
58.Fa resolved
59argument
60.Em must
61refer to a buffer capable of storing at least
62.Dv PATH_MAX
63characters, or be
64.Dv NULL .
65.Pp
66The
67.Fn realpath
68function will resolve both absolute and relative paths
69and return the absolute pathname corresponding to
70.Fa pathname .
71All but the last component of
72.Fa pathname
73must exist when
74.Fn realpath
75is called.
76.Sh RETURN VALUES
77The
78.Fn realpath
79function returns
80.Fa resolved
81on success.
82If
83.Fa resolved
84is
85.Dv NULL
86and no error occurred, then
87.Fn realpath
88returns a NUL-terminated string in a newly allocated buffer.
89If an error occurs,
90.Fn realpath
91returns
92.Dv NULL
93and the contents of
94.Fa resolved
95are undefined.
96.Sh ERRORS
97The function
98.Fn realpath
99may fail and set the external variable
100.Va errno
101for any of the errors specified for the library functions
102.Xr lstat 2 ,
103.Xr readlink 2 ,
104and
105.Xr getcwd 3 .
106.Sh SEE ALSO
107.Xr readlink 1 ,
108.Xr getcwd 3
109.Sh STANDARDS
110The
111.Fn realpath
112function conforms to
113.St -p1003.1-2008 .
114.Sh HISTORY
115The
116.Fn realpath
117function call first appeared in
118.Bx 4.4 .
119.Sh CAVEATS
120This implementation of
121.Fn realpath
122differs slightly from the Solaris implementation.
123The
124.Bx 4.4
125version always returns absolute pathnames,
126whereas the Solaris implementation will,
127under certain circumstances, return a relative
128.Fa resolved
129when given a relative
130.Fa pathname .
131