c - realpath() without resolving symlinks?

Question

I already read about realpath(), but is there a function that I can pass a base directory and a filename that would give me the following result without resolving symlinks or checking whether files actually exist? Or do I have to use a modified realpath()?

"/var/", "../etc///././/passwd" => "/etc/passwd"

Answer 1

Here is a normalize_path() function:

If the given path is relative, the function starts by prepending the current working directory to it.

Then the special path components like .., . or empty components are treated, and the result is returned.

For .., the last component is removed if there is one (/.. will just return /).
For . or empty components (double /), this is just skipped.

The function ensures to not return empty an path (/ is returned instead).

#define _GNU_SOURCE /* memrchr() */

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <limits.h>

char * normalize_path(const char * src, size_t src_len) {

        char * res;
        size_t res_len;

        const char * ptr = src;
        const char * end = &src[src_len];
        const char * next;

        if (src_len == 0 || src[0] != '/') {

                // relative path

                char pwd[PATH_MAX];
                size_t pwd_len;

                if (getcwd(pwd, sizeof(pwd)) == NULL) {
                        return NULL;
                }

                pwd_len = strlen(pwd);
                res = malloc(pwd_len + 1 + src_len + 1);
                memcpy(res, pwd, pwd_len);
                res_len = pwd_len;
        } else {
                res = malloc((src_len > 0 ? src_len : 1) + 1);
                res_len = 0;
        }

        for (ptr = src; ptr < end; ptr=next+1) {
                size_t len;
                next = memchr(ptr, '/', end-ptr);
                if (next == NULL) {
                        next = end;
                }
                len = next-ptr;
                switch(len) {
                case 2:
                        if (ptr[0] == '.' && ptr[1] == '.') {
                                const char * slash = memrchr(res, '/', res_len);
                                if (slash != NULL) {
                                        res_len = slash - res;
                                }
                                continue;
                        }
                        break;
                case 1:
                        if (ptr[0] == '.') {
                                continue;

                        }
                        break;
                case 0:
                        continue;
                }
                res[res_len++] = '/';
                memcpy(&res[res_len], ptr, len);
                res_len += len;
        }

        if (res_len == 0) {
                res[res_len++] = '/';
        }
        res[res_len] = '';
        return res;
}