in reply to convert a given dir name to its absolute path

use Cwd qw/abs_path/;

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Note that whilst File::Spec->rel2abs may give you the right answer sometimes, abs_path will give you the canonical path. rel2abs works by platform specific string manipulation, but abs_path asks the operating system for the path, on some platforms by doing a chdir followed by a pwd.

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Re^2: convert a given dir name to its absolute path
by xdg (Monsignor) on Dec 22, 2005 at 14:04 UTC

    To clarify slightly, as this is subtle:

    • File::Spec->rel2abs tells you what the absolute path should be, whether the file/dir exists or not

    • abs_path tells you what the filesystem thinks the absolute path is, and the file/dir must exist for it to do so

    -xdg

    Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

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Re^2: convert a given dir name to its absolute path
by tirwhan (Abbot) on Dec 22, 2005 at 12:45 UTC

    The one (obvious) caveat for that is that Cwd::abs_path will fail if you don't have permissions to chdir into the directory in question. Not normally an issue, since there isn't very much you can do with such a directory anyway.


    Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it. -- Brian W. Kernighan
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Re^2: convert a given dir name to its absolute path
by azaria (Beadle) on Dec 22, 2005 at 12:52 UTC
    I checked the following code on Linux but the output was unfortunatly empty ?!! -------------------------------- use Cwd qw/abs_path/; $abs_path = File::Spec->rel2abs( "../../"); print $abs_path,"\n";
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      opps I mixed two method. Ignore my mail. I will check this Cwd
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        good that works - use Cwd 'fast_abs_path'; print fast_abs_path("../.."); Thanks azaria
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