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REALPATH(3)		     Library Functions Manual		     REALPATH(3)

NAME
     realpath -- returns the canonicalized absolute pathname

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdlib.h>

     char *
     realpath(const char * restrict pathname, char * restrict resolved_path);

DESCRIPTION
     The  realpath()  function resolves all symbolic links, extra "/" characters
     and references to /./ and /../ in pathname, and copies  the  resulting  ab-
     solute   pathname	into  the  memory  pointed  to	by  resolved_path.   The
     resolved_path argument must point to a buffer capable of storing  at  least
     PATH_MAX characters, or be NULL.

     The  realpath()  function will resolve both absolute and relative paths and
     return the absolute pathname corresponding to pathname.  All components  of
     pathname  must exist when realpath() is called, and all but the last compo-
     nent must name either directories or symlinks pointing to the directories.

RETURN VALUES
     On success, the realpath() function returns resolved_path	if  it	was  not
     NULL,  or	a pointer to a null-terminated string which must be freed by the
     caller if it was.	If an error occurs,  realpath()  returns  NULL,  and  if
     resolved_path  was not NULL, the array that it points to contains the path-
     name which caused the problem.

ERRORS
     The function realpath() may fail and set the external  variable  errno  for
     any of the errors specified for the library functions lstat(2), readlink(2)
     and getcwd(3).

SEE ALSO
     basename(3), dirname(3), free(3), getcwd(3)

STANDARDS
     The realpath() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1").

HISTORY
     The realpath() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

FreeBSD ports 15.1		 March 18, 2026 		     REALPATH(3)

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