Get relative path from two absolute paths

I have two absolute filesystem paths (A and B), and I want to generate a third filesystem path that represents "A relative from B".

Use case:

Media player managing a playlist.
User adds file to playlist.
New file path added to playlist relative to playlist path.
In the future, entire music directory (including playlist) moved elsewhere.
All paths still valid because they are relative to the playlist.

boost::filesystem appears to have complete to resolve relative ~ relative => absolute, but nothing to do this in reverse (absolute ~ absolute => relative).

I want to do it with Boost paths.

Solution

As of version 1.60.0 boost.filesystem does support this. You're looking for the member function path lexically_relative(const path& p) const.

Original, pre-1.60.0 answer below.

Boost doesn't support this; it's an open issue — #1976 (Inverse function for complete) — that nevertheless doesn't seem to be getting much traction.

Here's a vaguely naive workaround that seems to do the trick (not sure whether it can be improved):

#include <boost/filesystem/path.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/operations.hpp>
#include <boost/filesystem/fstream.hpp>
#include <stdexcept>

/**
 * https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/1976#comment:2
 * 
 * "The idea: uncomplete(/foo/new, /foo/bar) => ../new
 *  The use case for this is any time you get a full path (from an open dialog, perhaps)
 *  and want to store a relative path so that the group of files can be moved to a different
 *  directory without breaking the paths. An IDE would be a simple example, so that the
 *  project file could be safely checked out of subversion."
 * 
 * ALGORITHM:
 *  iterate path and base
 * compare all elements so far of path and base
 * whilst they are the same, no write to output
 * when they change, or one runs out:
 *   write to output, ../ times the number of remaining elements in base
 *   write to output, the remaining elements in path
 */
boost::filesystem::path
naive_uncomplete(boost::filesystem::path const p, boost::filesystem::path const base) {

    using boost::filesystem::path;
    using boost::filesystem::dot;
    using boost::filesystem::slash;

    if (p == base)
        return "./";
        /*!! this breaks stuff if path is a filename rather than a directory,
             which it most likely is... but then base shouldn't be a filename so... */

    boost::filesystem::path from_path, from_base, output;

    boost::filesystem::path::iterator path_it = p.begin(),    path_end = p.end();
    boost::filesystem::path::iterator base_it = base.begin(), base_end = base.end();

    // check for emptiness
    if ((path_it == path_end) || (base_it == base_end))
        throw std::runtime_error("path or base was empty; couldn't generate relative path");

#ifdef WIN32
    // drive letters are different; don't generate a relative path
    if (*path_it != *base_it)
        return p;

    // now advance past drive letters; relative paths should only go up
    // to the root of the drive and not past it
    ++path_it, ++base_it;
#endif

    // Cache system-dependent dot, double-dot and slash strings
    const std::string _dot  = std::string(1, dot<path>::value);
    const std::string _dots = std::string(2, dot<path>::value);
    const std::string _sep = std::string(1, slash<path>::value);

    // iterate over path and base
    while (true) {

        // compare all elements so far of path and base to find greatest common root;
        // when elements of path and base differ, or run out:
        if ((path_it == path_end) || (base_it == base_end) || (*path_it != *base_it)) {

            // write to output, ../ times the number of remaining elements in base;
            // this is how far we've had to come down the tree from base to get to the common root
            for (; base_it != base_end; ++base_it) {
                if (*base_it == _dot)
                    continue;
                else if (*base_it == _sep)
                    continue;

                output /= "../";
            }

            // write to output, the remaining elements in path;
            // this is the path relative from the common root
            boost::filesystem::path::iterator path_it_start = path_it;
            for (; path_it != path_end; ++path_it) {

                if (path_it != path_it_start)
                    output /= "/";

                if (*path_it == _dot)
                    continue;
                if (*path_it == _sep)
                    continue;

                output /= *path_it;
            }

            break;
        }

        // add directory level to both paths and continue iteration
        from_path /= path(*path_it);
        from_base /= path(*base_it);

        ++path_it, ++base_it;
    }

    return output;
}