Path Component Relative Navigation
Plan lexical relative component navigation between absolute POSIX paths; no filesystem or symlink equivalence claim.
Description
Plan lexical relative component navigation between absolute POSIX paths; no filesystem or symlink equivalence claim.
Relative navigation between absolute directory paths can be computed lexically from their normalized components.
When to use this tool
Plan lexical relative component navigation between absolute POSIX paths; no filesystem or symlink equivalence claim.
- Prepare the supplied fromDirectory, toPath fields for this operation.
- Compare the complete example with the representation used by your own input before carrying the result into another step.
How to use the tool and how it works
- Enter fromDirectory, toPath. Use the exact text syntax, units and index conventions explained below.
- Run the tool. If input validation fails, correct the supplied fields before interpreting any result.
- Read result.relativePath. Interpret false, null and empty lists using the distinctions below; they can be valid outputs.
Require absolute POSIX-style fromDirectory/toPath, collapse literal dot components and find their common leading sequence. Emit one parent component per unmatched source-directory component followed by the target remainder, or dot when equal.1
| Input field | Meaning and representation | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| fromDirectory | from directory. | Text; at most 8,192 UTF-16 code units, subject to the grammar above |
| toPath | to path. | Text; at most 8,192 UTF-16 code units, subject to the grammar above |
| Output field | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| result | Object containing the named outputs below. |
| result.relativePath | The relative path value under the stated formula or text convention. |
{
"input": {
"fromDirectory": "/a/b",
"toPath": "/a/c"
},
"output": {
"result": {
"relativePath": "../c"
}
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- fromDirectory is treated as a directory, not a file whose final name is dropped. No symlink, mount, filesystem existence or permissions are resolved.
- Every declared top-level field is required and unexpected fields are rejected. Numeric inputs must be finite; ordinary text fields are bounded to 8,192 UTF-16 code units, with tighter operation-specific limits where stated.
- String lists have at most 128 entries of at most 128 code units; matrices have at most 128 rows and columns. Larger numeric lists and parsed JSON have separate bounded budgets. Nonfinite results and excessively large serialized outputs are rejected.
- Indexes are zero-based and spans have an exclusive end unless explicitly stated otherwise. A valid false, null or empty-list result is distinct from malformed input.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Use a filesystem-aware implementation with appropriate platform semantics for actual file operations. Literal slash components, Unicode comparison and filename plans do not resolve symlinks or atomically reserve a destination.
References
Similar or alternative tools
- Relative Path Component Resolver
Lexically resolve a relative POSIX path against an absolute directory with dot collapse; no symlink or actual-file resolution.
- Path Component Common Ancestor
Find a lexical component-level common ancestor of normalized absolute POSIX paths; character-prefix and filesystem ancestry are not inferred.