Question

Is there a PHP equivalent function to the Python os.path.normpath()?
Or how can i get the exactly same functionality in PHP?

Answer 1

Here is my 1:1 rewrite of normpath() method from Python’s posixpath.py in PHP:

function normpath($path)
{
    if (empty($path))
        return '.';

    if (strpos($path, '/') === 0)
        $initial_slashes = true;
    else
        $initial_slashes = false;
    if (
        ($initial_slashes) &&
        (strpos($path, '//') === 0) &&
        (strpos($path, '///') === false)
    )
        $initial_slashes = 2;
    $initial_slashes = (int) $initial_slashes;

    $comps = explode('/', $path);
    $new_comps = array();
    foreach ($comps as $comp)
    {
        if (in_array($comp, array('', '.')))
            continue;
        if (
            ($comp != '..') ||
            (!$initial_slashes && !$new_comps) ||
            ($new_comps && (end($new_comps) == '..'))
        )
            array_push($new_comps, $comp);
        elseif ($new_comps)
            array_pop($new_comps);
    }
    $comps = $new_comps;
    $path = implode('/', $comps);
    if ($initial_slashes)
        $path = str_repeat('/', $initial_slashes) . $path;
    if ($path)
        return $path;
    else
        return '.';
}

This will work exactly the same as os.path.normpath() in Python