GNU bug report logs - #10472
`realpath --relative-to=<path> /` outputs inconsistent trailing slash

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From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Cc: Mike Frysinger <vapier <at> gentoo.org>, 10472 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#10472: `realpath --relative-to=<path> /` outputs inconsistent trailing slash
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:22:22 -0700

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On 01/30/2012 03:01 PM, Pádraig Brady wrote:
>> $ realpath --relative-to=// //machine / // /bin
>> machine
>> /
>> .
>> /bin
>>
>> We need to make realpath robust to correct leading // handling; I don't
>> know if we should follow the lead of 'dirname' in only doing it on
>> machines where // is special, or if it is easier to make it honor POSIX
>> by special-casing // everywhere even on machines where / and // are
>> identical.
> 
> So on such a machine, I guess `readlink -m //machine/` outputs '//machine'.

Correct.

> To match up with that, I think it makes sense to only do this on systems
> where a double slash is significant.

I'm tending to agree - readlink, dirname, and realpath should all behave
consistently within a single compilation of coreutils.

> 
> BTW, this is how I'm interpreting this example:
> 
>> $ realpath --relative-to=// //machine / // /bin
>> machine
>> /
>> .
>> /bin
> 
> I'm taking --relative-to=// to mean relative to "the network".
> Hence relative output will be machines on the network,
> while absolute are local paths.

Correct.

Another bug still in the latest coreutils.git, but only on platforms
with distinct //:

$ src/realpath / // ///
/
//
//

Oops, that last line should be /.  This bug is shared by readlink:

$ src/readlink -m ///
//

> 
> gnulib says // matters for Apollo DomainOS (too old to port to),
> Cygwin, and z/OS.

And I tested on Cygwin (if it wasn't obvious :)

I can try to develop patches as part of porting coreutils 8.15 to cygwin
(cygwin already has a realpath(1), but it is severely limited in that it
only takes one file name and no command line options on what to do with
that name; I'm pretty sure that the coreutils realpath is upwards
compatible with the existing cygwin realpath:
http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-apps/2012-01/msg00080.html).

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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