POSIX Dot Collapse Trace
Trace lexical POSIX dot collapse, retaining unresolved leading parents on relative paths and clamping absolute root; symlinks are not resolved.
Description
Trace lexical POSIX dot collapse, retaining unresolved leading parents on relative paths and clamping absolute root; symlinks are not resolved.
A POSIX-style lexical dot-collapse trace shows which components were pushed, discarded or removed.
When to use this tool
Trace lexical POSIX dot collapse, retaining unresolved leading parents on relative paths and clamping absolute root; symlinks are not resolved.
- Prepare the supplied path 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 path. 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.components, result.events, result.absolute. Interpret false, null and empty lists using the distinctions below; they can be valid outputs.
Reject NUL, split nonempty slash components and track a stack. Discard dot; pop a preceding ordinary component for dot-dot; clamp parents at an absolute root and retain unresolved parents in relative paths. Return components, events and absolute.1
| Input field | Meaning and representation | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| path | 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.components | The components list in the ordering and representation described above. |
| result.events | The events list in the ordering and representation described above. |
| result.absolute | Flag for absolute under the exact condition described above. |
{
"input": {
"path": "a/../b"
},
"output": {
"result": {
"components": [
"b"
],
"events": [
{
"index": 0,
"component": "a",
"action": "push"
},
{
"index": 1,
"component": "..",
"action": "pop"
},
{
"index": 2,
"component": "b",
"action": "push"
}
],
"absolute": false
}
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- Repeated separators are omitted and trailing-separator state is not retained. No symlink or filesystem resolution is performed.
- 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
- Leading Dot Filename Extension Split
Split the final filename extension while preserving a leading-dot-only name as extensionless; a trailing dot gives an empty extension.
- Unix Dot Entry Classifier
Classify exact Unix dot entries separately from dot-prefixed names; no filesystem lookup or hidden-attribute guarantee.