Need subroutine to return full file path name

[Steve Roseman]

In article <10071.25e01a55 at vax1.cc.lehigh.edu>, lusgr at vax1.cc.lehigh.edu (Steve Roseman) writes:
> 	I need to find out the full path name of a file from a full or partial
> name entered by the user, so other users can access the file (assuming
> proper permissions, etc.)
> 
> 	For example, a user currently in /u/mydir/sub:
> 
> 	input:  test.c			output: /u/mydir/sub/test.c
> 	input:  /u/frog			output: /u/frog
> 	input:	../filename		output: /u/mydir/filename
> 
>  ...

Thanks to the several respondents who had suggestions.  Nothing, unfortunately,
was workable, so I finally kludged up my own routine.

	1. Separate the dir part from the file name (via strrchr).
	2. If only a file name, append the name to the current directory. Done.
	3. Else, chdir to the directory part, do a getcwd, and chdir back to the
	original place.  That gives me a full directory, and I add in the file
	name. Voila.  Tacky, but...

The performance may not be the greatest (getcwd works by piping the
output of a pwd command), and error checking lacking a bit, but it
will not be used heavily, and it got me past a bothersome hurdle. 

Thanks again for the suggestions,
Steve

(Wow, 2 non-RIOS articles in a row...)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Roseman Lehigh University Computing Center
LUSGR at VAX1.CC.Lehigh.EDU