使用GNU coreutils 8.23中的realpath是最简单的，我认为:

$ realpath --relative-to="$file1" "$file2"

例如:

$ realpath --relative-to=/usr/bin/nmap /tmp/testing
../../../tmp/testing

下面是一个shell脚本，它可以在不调用其他程序的情况下完成:

#! /bin/env bash 

#bash script to find the relative path between two directories

mydir=${0%/}
mydir=${0%/*}
creadlink="$mydir/creadlink"

shopt -s extglob

relpath_ () {
        path1=$("$creadlink" "$1")
        path2=$("$creadlink" "$2")
        orig1=$path1
        path1=${path1%/}/
        path2=${path2%/}/

        while :; do
                if test ! "$path1"; then
                        break
                fi
                part1=${path2#$path1}
                if test "${part1#/}" = "$part1"; then
                        path1=${path1%/*}
                        continue
                fi
                if test "${path2#$path1}" = "$path2"; then
                        path1=${path1%/*}
                        continue
                fi
                break
        done
        part1=$path1
        path1=${orig1#$part1}
        depth=${path1//+([^\/])/..}
        path1=${path2#$path1}
        path1=${depth}${path2#$part1}
        path1=${path1##+(\/)}
        path1=${path1%/}
        if test ! "$path1"; then
                path1=.
        fi
        printf "$path1"

}

relpath_test () {
        res=$(relpath_ /path1/to/dir1 /path1/to/dir2 )
        expected='../dir2'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        res=$(relpath_ / /path1/to/dir2 )
        expected='path1/to/dir2'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        res=$(relpath_ /path1/to/dir2 / )
        expected='../../..'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        res=$(relpath_ / / )
        expected='.'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        res=$(relpath_ /path/to/dir2/dir3 /path/to/dir1/dir4/dir4a )
        expected='../../dir1/dir4/dir4a'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        res=$(relpath_ /path/to/dir1/dir4/dir4a /path/to/dir2/dir3 )
        expected='../../../dir2/dir3'
        test_results "$res" "$expected"

        #res=$(relpath_ . /path/to/dir2/dir3 )
        #expected='../../../dir2/dir3'
        #test_results "$res" "$expected"
}

test_results () {
        if test ! "$1" = "$2"; then
                printf 'failed!\nresult:\nX%sX\nexpected:\nX%sX\n\n' "$@"
        fi
}

#relpath_test

来源:http://www.ynform.org/w/Pub/Relpath

kasku和Pini的答案略有改进，空格更好，允许传递相对路径:

#!/bin/bash
# both $1 and $2 are paths
# returns $2 relative to $1
absolute=`readlink -f "$2"`
current=`readlink -f "$1"`
# Perl is magic
# Quoting horror.... spaces cause problems, that's why we need the extra " in here:
relative=$(perl -MFile::Spec -e "print File::Spec->abs2rel(q($absolute),q($current))")

echo $relative

使用GNU coreutils 8.23中的realpath是最简单的，我认为:

$ realpath --relative-to="$file1" "$file2"

例如:

$ realpath --relative-to=/usr/bin/nmap /tmp/testing
../../../tmp/testing

#!/bin/bash
# both $1 and $2 are absolute paths
# returns $2 relative to $1

source=$1
target=$2

common_part=$source
back=
while [ "${target#$common_part}" = "${target}" ]; do
  common_part=$(dirname $common_part)
  back="../${back}"
done

echo ${back}${target#$common_part/}

假设您已经安装了:bash、pwd、dirname、echo;relpath是

#!/bin/bash
s=$(cd ${1%%/};pwd); d=$(cd $2;pwd); b=; while [ "${d#$s/}" == "${d}" ]
do s=$(dirname $s);b="../${b}"; done; echo ${b}${d#$s/}

我从pini和其他一些想法中得到了答案

注意:这要求两个路径都是现有文件夹。文件将无法工作。