Xref: utzoo comp.unix.wizards:8495 comp.sources.d:2114
Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!daveb
From: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Finding where an executable was run from -- a proposal.
Summary: there is a "name" program...
Message-ID: <2752@geac.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 88 15:41:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: geac.2752
Posted: Mon May 16 11:41:07 1988
References: <67@uvaarpa.virginia.edu> <6800012@cpe> <4527@hoptoad.uucp> <9987@tekecs.TEK.COM> <5307@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: daveb@geac.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organisation
Lines: 23

In article <5307@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> wesommer@athena.mit.edu (William Sommerfeld) writes:
| I remarked (in private mail) to John Gilmore that what he described
| was very similar to the Multics referencing_dir mechanism. If it's
| done right, the application gets passed its _real_ absolute pathname,
| after all the symlinks have been chased.
| 
| While I'm here, I might as well lobby for support for a library
| function/system call which canonicalizes a pathname, chasing all the
| links and turning it into an absolute pathname.  abs_path(".", buf) should
| be equivalent to getwd(buf).  It was useful on Multics.  It would be
| very useful in some cases on UNIX.
|...
| 				Bill Sommerfeld
| 				wesommer@athena.mit.edu

I have a copy of a program called "name" which appears to do just
that (the O(n**2) variant), whose origin is unknown.  Would the
author care to (re)post it?  Shall I?
-- 
 David Collier-Brown.  {mnetor yunexus utgpu}!geac!daveb
 Geac Computers Ltd.,  | "His Majesty made you a major 
 350 Steelcase Road,   |  because he believed you would 
 Markham, Ontario.     |  know when not to obey his orders"