我将只使用Perl来完成这个不那么简单的任务:

absolute="/foo/bar"
current="/foo/baz/foo"

# Perl is magic
relative=$(perl -MFile::Spec -e 'print File::Spec->abs2rel("'$absolute'","'$current'")')

$ python -c "import os.path; print os.path.relpath('/foo/bar', '/foo/baz/foo')"

给:

../../bar

自2001年以来，它被内置到Perl中，因此它几乎可以在您能想象到的所有系统上工作，甚至VMS。

perl -le 'use File::Spec; print File::Spec->abs2rel(@ARGV)' FILE BASE

而且，解决方案很容易理解。

举个例子:

perl -le 'use File::Spec; print File::Spec->abs2rel(@ARGV)' $absolute $current

.．.会很好。

这是对@pini目前评分最高的解决方案(遗憾的是，它只处理少数情况)的更正，全功能改进

提醒:'-z'测试如果字符串是零长度(=空)，'-n'测试如果字符串不是空。

# both $1 and $2 are absolute paths beginning with /
# returns relative path to $2/$target from $1/$source
source=$1
target=$2

common_part=$source # for now
result="" # for now

while [[ "${target#$common_part}" == "${target}" ]]; do
    # no match, means that candidate common part is not correct
    # go up one level (reduce common part)
    common_part="$(dirname $common_part)"
    # and record that we went back, with correct / handling
    if [[ -z $result ]]; then
        result=".."
    else
        result="../$result"
    fi
done

if [[ $common_part == "/" ]]; then
    # special case for root (no common path)
    result="$result/"
fi

# since we now have identified the common part,
# compute the non-common part
forward_part="${target#$common_part}"

# and now stick all parts together
if [[ -n $result ]] && [[ -n $forward_part ]]; then
    result="$result$forward_part"
elif [[ -n $forward_part ]]; then
    # extra slash removal
    result="${forward_part:1}"
fi

echo $result

测试用例:

compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A"           -->  "../.."
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B"         -->  ".."
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B/C"       -->  ""
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B/C/D"     -->  "D"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B/C/D/E"   -->  "D/E"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B/D"       -->  "../D"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/B/D/E"     -->  "../D/E"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/D"         -->  "../../D"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/A/D/E"       -->  "../../D/E"
compute_relative.sh "/A/B/C" "/D/E/F"       -->  "../../../D/E/F"

这个脚本只对路径名有效。它不需要任何文件存在。如果传递的路径不是绝对的，那么行为就有点不寻常，但是如果两条路径都是相对的，那么应该能正常工作。

我只在OS X上测试过，所以可能不太便携。

#!/bin/bash
set -e
declare SCRIPT_NAME="$(basename $0)"
function usage {
    echo "Usage: $SCRIPT_NAME <base path> <target file>"
    echo "       Outputs <target file> relative to <base path>"
    exit 1
}

if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then usage; fi

declare base=$1
declare target=$2
declare -a base_part=()
declare -a target_part=()

#Split path elements & canonicalize
OFS="$IFS"; IFS='/'
bpl=0;
for bp in $base; do
    case "$bp" in
        ".");;
        "..") let "bpl=$bpl-1" ;;
        *) base_part[${bpl}]="$bp" ; let "bpl=$bpl+1";;
    esac
done
tpl=0;
for tp in $target; do
    case "$tp" in
        ".");;
        "..") let "tpl=$tpl-1" ;;
        *) target_part[${tpl}]="$tp" ; let "tpl=$tpl+1";;
    esac
done
IFS="$OFS"

#Count common prefix
common=0
for (( i=0 ; i<$bpl ; i++ )); do
    if [ "${base_part[$i]}" = "${target_part[$common]}" ] ; then
        let "common=$common+1"
    else
        break
    fi
done

#Compute number of directories up
let "updir=$bpl-$common" || updir=0 #if the expression is zero, 'let' fails

#trivial case (after canonical decomposition)
if [ $updir -eq 0 ]; then
    echo .
    exit
fi

#Print updirs
for (( i=0 ; i<$updir ; i++ )); do
    echo -n ../
done

#Print remaining path
for (( i=$common ; i<$tpl ; i++ )); do
    if [ $i -ne $common ]; then
        echo -n "/"
    fi
    if [ "" != "${target_part[$i]}" ] ; then
        echo -n "${target_part[$i]}"
    fi
done
#One last newline
echo

我猜这个也可以…(自带内置测试):)

好吧，预计会有一些开销，但我们在这里做的是伯恩壳!；）

#!/bin/sh

#
# Finding the relative path to a certain file ($2), given the absolute path ($1)
# (available here too http://pastebin.com/tWWqA8aB)
#
relpath () {
  local  FROM="$1"
  local    TO="`dirname  $2`"
  local  FILE="`basename $2`"
  local  DEBUG="$3"

  local FROMREL=""
  local FROMUP="$FROM"
  while [ "$FROMUP" != "/" ]; do
    local TOUP="$TO"
    local TOREL=""
    while [ "$TOUP" != "/" ]; do
      [ -z "$DEBUG" ] || echo 1>&2 "$DEBUG$FROMUP =?= $TOUP"
      if [ "$FROMUP" = "$TOUP" ]; then
        echo "${FROMREL:-.}/$TOREL${TOREL:+/}$FILE"
        return 0
      fi
      TOREL="`basename $TOUP`${TOREL:+/}$TOREL"
      TOUP="`dirname $TOUP`"
    done
    FROMREL="..${FROMREL:+/}$FROMREL"
    FROMUP="`dirname $FROMUP`"
  done
  echo "${FROMREL:-.}${TOREL:+/}$TOREL/$FILE"
  return 0
}

relpathshow () {
  echo " - target $2"
  echo "   from   $1"
  echo "   ------"
  echo "   => `relpath $1 $2 '      '`"
  echo ""
}

# If given 2 arguments, do as said...
if [ -n "$2" ]; then
  relpath $1 $2

# If only one given, then assume current directory
elif [ -n "$1" ]; then
  relpath `pwd` $1

# Otherwise perform a set of built-in tests to confirm the validity of the method! ;)
else

  relpathshow /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin \
              /usr/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el/filladapt.el

  relpathshow /usr/bin/share/emacs22/site-lisp/emacs-goodies-el \
              /etc/motd

  relpathshow / \
              /initrd.img
fi