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linuxbashunixshell

How do you normalize a file path in Bash?

I want to transform /foo/bar/.. to /foo

Is there a bash command which does this?

Edit: in my practical case, the directory does exist.

Solution

  • if you're wanting to chomp part of a filename from the path, "dirname" and "basename" are your friends, and "realpath" is handy too. 

    dirname /foo/bar/baz 
# /foo/bar 
basename /foo/bar/baz
# baz
dirname $( dirname  /foo/bar/baz  ) 
# /foo 
realpath ../foo
# ../foo: No such file or directory
realpath /tmp/../tmp/../tmp
# /tmp

    realpath alternatives

    If realpath is not supported by your shell, you can try 

    readlink -f /path/here/..

    Also

    readlink -m /path/there/../../

    Works the same as 

    realpath -s /path/here/../../

    in that the path doesn't need to exist to be normalized.