Convert absolute path into relative path given a c

Question

Example:

absolute="/foo/bar"
current="/foo/baz/foo"

# Magic

relative="../../bar"

How do I create the magic (hopefully not too complicated code...)?

Answer 1

#!/bin/sh

# Return relative path from canonical absolute dir path $1 to canonical
# absolute dir path $2 ($1 and/or $2 may end with one or no "/").
# Does only need POSIX shell builtins (no external command)
relPath () {
    local common path up
    common=${1%/} path=${2%/}/
    while test "${path#"$common"/}" = "$path"; do
        common=${common%/*} up=../$up
    done
    path=$up${path#"$common"/}; path=${path%/}; printf %s "${path:-.}"
}

# Return relative path from dir $1 to dir $2 (Does not impose any
# restrictions on $1 and $2 but requires GNU Core Utility "readlink"
# HINT: busybox's "readlink" does not support option '-m', only '-f'
#       which requires that all but the last path component must exist)
relpath () { relPath "$(readlink -m "$1")" "$(readlink -m "$2")"; }

Above shell script was inspired by pini's (Thanks!). It triggers a bug in the syntax highlighting module of Stack Overflow (at least in my preview frame). So please ignore if highlighting is incorrect.

Some notes:

• Removed errors and improved code without significantly increasing code length and complexity
• Put functionality into functions for easiness of use
• Kept functions POSIX compatible so that they (should) work with all POSIX shells (tested with dash, bash, and zsh in Ubuntu Linux 12.04)
• Used local variables only to avoid clobbering global variables and polluting the global name space
• Both directory paths DO NOT need to exist (requirement for my application)
• Pathnames may contain spaces, special characters, control characters, backslashes, tabs, ', ", ?, *, [, ], etc.
• Core function "relPath" uses POSIX shell builtins only but requires canonical absolute directory paths as parameters
• Extended function "relpath" can handle arbitrary directory paths (also relative, non-canonical) but requires external GNU core utility "readlink"
• Avoided builtin "echo" and used builtin "printf" instead for two reasons:
  • Due to conflicting historical implementations of builtin "echo" it behaves differently in different shells -> POSIX recommends that printf is preferred over echo.
  • Builtin "echo" of some POSIX shells will interpret some backslash sequences and thus corrupt pathnames containing such sequences
• To avoid unnecessary conversions, pathnames are used as they are returned and expected by shell and OS utilities (e.g. cd, ln, ls, find, mkdir; unlike python's "os.path.relpath" which will interpret some backslash sequences)

• Except for the mentioned backslash sequences the last line of function "relPath" outputs pathnames compatible to python:

  path=$up${path#"$common"/}; path=${path%/}; printf %s "${path:-.}"
  

  Last line can be replaced (and simplified) by line

  printf %s "$up${path#"$common"/}"
  

  I prefer the latter because

  1. Filenames can be directly appended to dir paths obtained by relPath, e.g.:

     ln -s "$(relpath "<fromDir>" "<toDir>")<file>" "<fromDir>"
     

  2. Symbolic links in the same dir created with this method do not have the ugly "./" prepended to the filename.

• If you find an error please contact linuxball (at) gmail.com and I'll try to fix it.
• Added regression test suite (also POSIX shell compatible)

Code listing for regression tests (simply append it to the shell script):

############################################################################
# If called with 2 arguments assume they are dir paths and print rel. path #
############################################################################

test "$#" = 2 && {
    printf '%s\n' "Rel. path from '$1' to '$2' is '$(relpath "$1" "$2")'."
    exit 0
}

#######################################################
# If NOT called with 2 arguments run regression tests #
#######################################################

format="\t%-19s %-22s %-27s %-8s %-8s %-8s\n"
printf \
"\n\n*** Testing own and python's function with canonical absolute dirs\n\n"
printf "$format\n" \
    "From Directory" "To Directory" "Rel. Path" "relPath" "relpath" "python"
IFS=
while read -r p; do
    eval set -- $p
    case $1 in '#'*|'') continue;; esac # Skip comments and empty lines
    # q stores quoting character, use " if ' is used in path name
    q="'"; case $1$2 in *"'"*) q='"';; esac
    rPOk=passed rP=$(relPath "$1" "$2"); test "$rP" = "$3" || rPOk=$rP
    rpOk=passed rp=$(relpath "$1" "$2"); test "$rp" = "$3" || rpOk=$rp
    RPOk=passed
    RP=$(python -c "import os.path; print os.path.relpath($q$2$q, $q$1$q)")
    test "$RP" = "$3" || RPOk=$RP
    printf \
    "$format" "$q$1$q" "$q$2$q" "$q$3$q" "$q$rPOk$q" "$q$rpOk$q" "$q$RPOk$q"
done <<-"EOF"
    # From directory    To directory           Expected relative path

    '/'                 '/'                    '.'
    '/usr'              '/'                    '..'
    '/usr/'             '/'                    '..'
    '/'                 '/usr'                 'usr'
    '/'                 '/usr/'                'usr'
    '/usr'              '/usr'                 '.'
    '/usr/'             '/usr'                 '.'
    '/usr'              '/usr/'                '.'
    '/usr/'             '/usr/'                '.'
    '/u'                '/usr'                 '../usr'
    '/usr'              '/u'                   '../u'
    "/u'/dir"           "/u'/dir"              "."
    "/u'"               "/u'/dir"              "dir"
    "/u'/dir"           "/u'"                  ".."
    "/"                 "/u'/dir"              "u'/dir"
    "/u'/dir"           "/"                    "../.."
    "/u'"               "/u'"                  "."
    "/"                 "/u'"                  "u'"
    "/u'"               "/"                    ".."
    '/u"/dir'           '/u"/dir'              '.'
    '/u"'               '/u"/dir'              'dir'
    '/u"/dir'           '/u"'                  '..'
    '/'                 '/u"/dir'              'u"/dir'
    '/u"/dir'           '/'                    '../..'
    '/u"'               '/u"'                  '.'
    '/'                 '/u"'                  'u"'
    '/u"'               '/'                    '..'
    '/u /dir'           '/u /dir'              '.'
    '/u '               '/u /dir'              'dir'
    '/u /dir'           '/u '                  '..'
    '/'                 '/u /dir'              'u /dir'
    '/u /dir'           '/'                    '../..'
    '/u '               '/u '                  '.'
    '/'                 '/u '                  'u '
    '/u '               '/'                    '..'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/u\n/dir'             '.'
    '/u\n'              '/u\n/dir'             'dir'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/u\n'                 '..'
    '/'                 '/u\n/dir'             'u\n/dir'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/'                    '../..'
    '/u\n'              '/u\n'                 '.'
    '/'                 '/u\n'                 'u\n'
    '/u\n'              '/'                    '..'

    '/    a   b/å/⮀*/!' '/    a   b/å/⮀/xäå/?' '../../⮀/xäå/?'
    '/'                 '/A'                   'A'
    '/A'                '/'                    '..'
    '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'  '/'                    '../../../../..'
    '/'                 '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'     '  & /  !/*/\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'  '/  & /  !/?/\\/E/F'   '../../../?/\\/E/F'
    '/X/Y'              '/  & /  !/C/\\/E/F'   '../../  & /  !/C/\\/E/F'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/A'                   '../../../A'
    '/A /  !/C'         '/A /B'                '../../B'
    '/Â/  !/C'          '/Â/  !/C'             '.'
    '/  & /B / C'       '/  & /B / C/D'        'D'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /  !/C/\\/Ê'     '\\/Ê'
    '/Å/  !/C'          '/Å/  !/D'             '../D'
    '/.A /*B/C'         '/.A /*B/\\/E'         '../\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /D'              '../../D'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /\\/E'           '../../\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/\\/E/F'              '../../../\\/E/F'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p3'          '../p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p4/p5'          '../../p4/p5'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p6/p7'          '../../../work/p6/p7'
    '/home/p1'          '/work/p1/p2/p3/p4'    '../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
    '/home'             '/work/p2/p3'          '../work/p2/p3'
    '/'                 '/work/p2/p3/p4'       'work/p2/p3/p4'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2/p3/p4'    'p3/p4'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2/p3'       'p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2'          '.'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1'             '..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home'                '../..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/'                    '../../..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work'                '../../../work'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1'             '../../../work/p1'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2'          '../../../work/p1/p2'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2/p3'       '../../../work/p1/p2/p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2/p3/p4'    '../../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'

    '/-'                '/-'                   '.'
    '/?'                '/?'                   '.'
    '/??'               '/??'                  '.'
    '/???'              '/???'                 '.'
    '/?*'               '/?*'                  '.'
    '/*'                '/*'                   '.'
    '/*'                '/**'                  '../**'
    '/*'                '/***'                 '../***'
    '/*.*'              '/*.**'                '../*.**'
    '/*.???'            '/*.??'                '../*.??'
    '/[]'               '/[]'                  '.'
    '/[a-z]*'           '/[0-9]*'              '../[0-9]*'
EOF


format="\t%-19s %-22s %-27s %-8s %-8s\n"
printf "\n\n*** Testing own and python's function with arbitrary dirs\n\n"
printf "$format\n" \
    "From Directory" "To Directory" "Rel. Path" "relpath" "python"
IFS=
while read -r p; do
    eval set -- $p
    case $1 in '#'*|'') continue;; esac # Skip comments and empty lines
    # q stores quoting character, use " if ' is used in path name
    q="'"; case $1$2 in *"'"*) q='"';; esac
    rpOk=passed rp=$(relpath "$1" "$2"); test "$rp" = "$3" || rpOk=$rp
    RPOk=passed
    RP=$(python -c "import os.path; print os.path.relpath($q$2$q, $q$1$q)")
    test "$RP" = "$3" || RPOk=$RP
    printf "$format" "$q$1$q" "$q$2$q" "$q$3$q" "$q$rpOk$q" "$q$RPOk$q"
done <<-"EOF"
    # From directory    To directory           Expected relative path

    'usr/p1/..//./p4'   'p3/../p1/p6/.././/p2' '../../p1/p2'
    './home/../../work' '..//././../dir///'    '../../dir'

    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p3'           '../p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p4/p5'           '../../p4/p5'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p6/p7'           '../../../work/p6/p7'
    'home/p1'           'work/p1/p2/p3/p4'     '../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
    'home'              'work/p2/p3'           '../work/p2/p3'
    '.'                 'work/p2/p3'           'work/p2/p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2/p3/p4'     'p3/p4'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2/p3'        'p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2'           '.'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1'              '..'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home'                 '../..'
    'home/p1/p2'        '.'                    '../../..'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work'                 '../../../work'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1'              '../../../work/p1'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2'           '../../../work/p1/p2'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2/p3'        '../../../work/p1/p2/p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2/p3/p4'     '../../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
EOF

Answer 2

I would just use Perl for this not-so-trivial task:

absolute="/foo/bar"
current="/foo/baz/foo"

# Perl is magic
relative=$(perl -MFile::Spec -e 'print File::Spec->abs2rel("'$absolute'","'$current'")')

Answer 3

Using realpath from GNU coreutils 8.23 is the simplest, I think:

$ realpath --relative-to="$file1" "$file2"

For example:

$ realpath --relative-to=/usr/bin/nmap /tmp/testing
../../../tmp/testing

Answer 4

Here is my version. It's based on the answer by @Offirmo. I made it Dash-compatible and fixed the following testcase failure:

./compute-relative.sh "/a/b/c/de/f/g" "/a/b/c/def/g/" --> "../..f/g/"

Now:

CT_FindRelativePath "/a/b/c/de/f/g" "/a/b/c/def/g/" --> "../../../def/g/"

See the code:

# both $1 and $2 are absolute paths beginning with /
# returns relative path to $2/$target from $1/$source
CT_FindRelativePath()
{
    local insource=$1
    local intarget=$2

    # Ensure both source and target end with /
    # This simplifies the inner loop.
    #echo "insource : \"$insource\""
    #echo "intarget : \"$intarget\""
    case "$insource" in
        */) ;;
        *) source="$insource"/ ;;
    esac

    case "$intarget" in
        */) ;;
        *) target="$intarget"/ ;;
    esac

    #echo "source : \"$source\""
    #echo "target : \"$target\""

    local common_part=$source # for now

    local result=""

    #echo "common_part is now : \"$common_part\""
    #echo "result is now      : \"$result\""
    #echo "target#common_part : \"${target#$common_part}\""
    while [ "${target#$common_part}" = "${target}" -a "${common_part}" != "//" ]; do
        # no match, means that candidate common part is not correct
        # go up one level (reduce common part)
        common_part=$(dirname "$common_part")/
        # and record that we went back
        if [ -z "${result}" ]; then
            result="../"
        else
            result="../$result"
        fi
        #echo "(w) common_part is now : \"$common_part\""
        #echo "(w) result is now      : \"$result\""
        #echo "(w) target#common_part : \"${target#$common_part}\""
    done

    #echo "(f) common_part is     : \"$common_part\""

    if [ "${common_part}" = "//" ]; then
        # special case for root (no common path)
        common_part="/"
    fi

    # since we now have identified the common part,
    # compute the non-common part
    forward_part="${target#$common_part}"
    #echo "forward_part = \"$forward_part\""

    if [ -n "${result}" -a -n "${forward_part}" ]; then
        #echo "(simple concat)"
        result="$result$forward_part"
    elif [ -n "${forward_part}" ]; then
        result="$forward_part"
    fi
    #echo "result = \"$result\""

    # if a / was added to target and result ends in / then remove it now.
    if [ "$intarget" != "$target" ]; then
        case "$result" in
            */) result=$(echo "$result" | awk '{ string=substr($0, 1, length($0)-1); print string; }' ) ;;
        esac
    fi

    echo $result

    return 0
}

Answer 5

A slight improvement on kasku's and Pini's answers, which plays nicer with spaces and allows passing relative paths:

#!/bin/bash
# both $1 and $2 are paths
# returns $2 relative to $1
absolute=`readlink -f "$2"`
current=`readlink -f "$1"`
# Perl is magic
# Quoting horror.... spaces cause problems, that's why we need the extra " in here:
relative=$(perl -MFile::Spec -e "print File::Spec->abs2rel(q($absolute),q($current))")

echo $relative

Answer 6

Guess this one shall do the trick too... (comes with built-in tests) :)

OK, some overhead expected, but we're doing Bourne shell here! ;)

#!/bin/sh

#
# Finding the relative path to a certain file ($2), given the absolute path ($1)
# (available here too http://pastebin.com/tWWqA8aB)
#
relpath () {
  local  FROM="$1"
  local    TO="`dirname  $2`"
  local  FILE="`basename $2`"
  local  DEBUG="$3"

  local FROMREL=""
  local FROMUP="$FROM"
  while [ "$FROMUP" != "/" ]; do
    local TOUP="$TO"
    local TOREL=""
    while [ "$TOUP" != "/" ]; do
      [ -z "$DEBUG" ] || echo 1>&2 "$DEBUG$FROMUP =?= $TOUP"
      if [ "$FROMUP" = "$TOUP" ]; then
        echo "${FROMREL:-.}/$TOREL${TOREL:+/}$FILE"
        return 0
      fi
      TOREL="`basename $TOUP`${TOREL:+/}$TOREL"
      TOUP="`dirname $TOUP`"
    done
    FROMREL="..${FROMREL:+/}$FROMREL"
    FROMUP="`dirname $FROMUP`"
  done
  echo "${FROMREL:-.}${TOREL:+/}$TOREL/$FILE"
  return 0
}

relpathshow () {
  echo " - target $2"
  echo "   from   $1"
  echo "   ------"
  echo "   => `relpath $1 $2 '      '`"
  echo ""
}

# If given 2 arguments, do as said...
if [ -n "$2" ]; then
  relpath $1 $2

# If only one given, then assume current directory
elif [ -n "$1" ]; then
  relpath `pwd` $1

# Otherwise perform a set of built-in tests to confirm the validity of the method! ;)
else

  relpathshow /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /etc/motd

  relpathshow / \
              /initrd.img
fi