realpath

A developer documents the Unix command 'realpath' for outputting the absolute path of a file, noting its utility when referencing file paths for large language models (LLMs). The author suggests aliases like 'ap' or 'abspath' for convenience.

Quick note post. I wanted to document this handy little Unix command for spitting out the absolute path of a file: cd ~/projects/<project /docs ls thing.md realpath thing.md /path/to/home/projects/<project /docs/thing.md So, if thing.md lives at ~/projects//docs/thing.md, we'd get something like... /path/to/home/projects/<project /docs/thing.md Especially when dealing with LLMs needing to reference paths on your machine for the LLM to read , this is a handy one to have floating around your brain. My only gripe is this has that old school linux command naming style when it should be something like ap or abspath . Aliases to the rescue alias ap="realpath" alias abspath="realpath" alias absolute path="realpath" Pop this in your Bash or ZSH config and open a new terminal: cd ~/projects/<project /docs ls thing.md ap thing.md /path/to/home/projects/<project /docs/thing.md Enjoy