Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

15
  • I do not mind being downvoted, but I like to understand why so that I can learn something, either technical or regarding what is considered proper practice on the site. Well ... at least it induced me to register with Meta Stack Overflow to better understand local sociology. I do recommend it. -- Still, if anyone has an opinion about the inappropriateness of my answer, I am interested.
    – babou
    Commented May 20, 2013 at 15:35
  • 1
    (a) the question has a valid answer from 2+1/2 years ago, (b) there is a (single) absolute path corresponding to a relative path (which is what I wanted), though maybe not to a file as you pointed out. BTW any comments about realpath vs readlink or even about symbolic links are surplus to what I asked.
    – dhardy
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 18:56
  • 1
    Second comment: short answers are very often more useful than long lectures. Stack overflow is usually used to ask specific questions.
    – dhardy
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 18:58
  • 6
    1- the fact that a question has had a valid answer for however long does not mean that it is closed. The questions are not intended for personnal use only. Indeed, there are badges for replies that collect more votes than the validated answer. And with new tools, the "best" answer can change over time. Many people use old answers accessed through web search.
    – babou
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 11:58
  • 1
    2 - You insist that there is a (single) absolute path corresponding to a relative path. While I do guess what you mean by "corresponding", i.e. a path derived from the original through a given set of transformations, your statement is still incorrect. There is a unique "corresponding" canonical path. The word canonical refers precisely to this uniqueness relative to a set of transformations. But, for example, /dev/cdrom is a perfectly good absolute path, even though it is actually a link to /dev/sr0. Both point to the same device. My original answer pointed to a relevant web article.
    – babou
    Commented May 29, 2013 at 11:58