Getting absolute path of a file
CUnixPathFilesystemsAbsoluteC Problem Overview
How can I convert a relative path to an absolute path in C on Unix? Is there a convenient system function for this?
On Windows there is a GetFullPathName
function that does the job, but I didn't find something similar on Unix...
C Solutions
Solution 1 - C
Use realpath().
> The realpath()
function shall derive,
> from the pathname pointed to by
> file_name
, an absolute pathname that
> names the same file, whose resolution
> does not involve '.
', '..
', or
> symbolic links. The generated pathname
> shall be stored as a null-terminated
> string, up to a maximum of {PATH_MAX}
> bytes, in the buffer pointed to by
> resolved_name
.
>
> If resolved_name
is a null pointer,
> the behavior of realpath()
is
> implementation-defined.
> The following example generates an > absolute pathname for the file > identified by the symlinkpath > argument. The generated pathname is > stored in the actualpath array.
#include <stdlib.h>
...
char *symlinkpath = "/tmp/symlink/file";
char actualpath [PATH_MAX+1];
char *ptr;
ptr = realpath(symlinkpath, actualpath);
Solution 2 - C
Try realpath()
in stdlib.h
char filename[] = "../../../../data/000000.jpg";
char* path = realpath(filename, NULL);
if(path == NULL){
printf("cannot find file with name[%s]\n", filename);
} else{
printf("path[%s]\n", path);
free(path);
}
Solution 3 - C
There is also a small path library cwalk which works cross-platform. It has cwk_path_get_absolute to do that:
#include <cwalk.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char buffer[FILENAME_MAX];
cwk_path_get_absolute("/hello/there", "./world", buffer, sizeof(buffer));
printf("The absolute path is: %s", buffer);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Outputs:
The absolute path is: /hello/there/world
Solution 4 - C
Also try "getcwd"
#include <unistd.h>
char cwd[100000];
getcwd(cwd, sizeof(cwd));
std::cout << "Absolute path: "<< cwd << "/" << __FILE__ << std::endl;
Result:
Absolute path: /media/setivolkylany/WorkDisk/Programming/Sources/MichailFlenov/main.cpp
Testing environment:
setivolkylany@localhost$/ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 8.6 (jessie)
Release: 8.6
Codename: jessie
setivolkylany@localhost$/ uname -a
Linux localhost 3.16.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.36-1+deb8u2 (2016-10-19) x86_64 GNU/Linux
setivolkylany@localhost$/ g++ --version
g++ (Debian 4.9.2-10) 4.9.2
Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.