realpath()

realpath() — Returns canonicalized absolute pathname.

realpath expands all symbolic links and resolves references to /./, /../ and extra / characters in the input path and returns the canonicalized absolute pathname.

Inputs: path: The path being checked. Whilst a path must be supplied, the value can be an empty string. In this case, the value is interpreted as the current directory.

Returns: Returns the canonicalized absolute pathname on success. The resulting path will have no symbolic link, /./ or /../ components. Trailing delimiters, such as and /, are also removed. realpath returns false on failure, e.g. if the file does not exist.