use strict;
use File::Spec::Functions;
use Data::Dumper;  # for debugging purpose only

my $path = canonpath("../somedir/path/");
print "$path\n";

my @dirs = qw( ../dir/path1 ../dir/path2 );
my @canon_dirs = map { canonpath($_) } @dirs;
print Dumper(\@canon_dirs);

##</code><code>##

../somedir/path
$VAR1 = [
          '../dir/path1',
          '../dir/path2'
        ];

##</code><code>##

..\somedir\path
$VAR1 = [
          '..\\dir\\path1',
          '..\\dir\\path2'
        ];

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use File::Spec::Functions;

my %root = (
  MSWin32 => "C:\\Data",
  solaris => "/var/data",
);

my $ROOTDIR = $root{$^O} or die "Unknown platform";

my $file1 = canonpath("$ROOTDIR/data.txt");
print "$file1\n";
my $file2 = canonpath("$ROOTDIR/../input/data2.txt");
print "$file2\n";

##</code><code>##

C:\Data\data.txt
C:\Data\..\input\data2.txt

##</code><code>##

/var/data/data.txt
/var/data/../input/data2.txt