如果你正在编写一个Maven插件，你可以使用Plexus的PathTool:

import org.codehaus.plexus.util.PathTool;

String relativeFilePath = PathTool.getRelativeFilePath(file1, file2);

递归产生一个较小的解决方案。如果结果不可能(例如不同的Windows磁盘)或不切实际(根目录只是普通目录)，则抛出异常。

/**
 * Computes the path for a file relative to a given base, or fails if the only shared 
 * directory is the root and the absolute form is better.
 * 
 * @param base File that is the base for the result
 * @param name File to be "relativized"
 * @return the relative name
 * @throws IOException if files have no common sub-directories, i.e. at best share the
 *                     root prefix "/" or "C:\"
 */

public static String getRelativePath(File base, File name) throws IOException  {
    File parent = base.getParentFile();

    if (parent == null) {
        throw new IOException("No common directory");
    }

    String bpath = base.getCanonicalPath();
    String fpath = name.getCanonicalPath();

    if (fpath.startsWith(bpath)) {
        return fpath.substring(bpath.length() + 1);
    } else {
        return (".." + File.separator + getRelativePath(parent, name));
    }
}

Matt B的解决方案错误地获得了回溯目录的数量——它应该是基本路径的长度减去公共路径元素的数量，减去1(对于最后一个路径元素，它是一个文件名或由split生成的尾随“”)。它恰好适用于/a/b/c/和/a/x/y/，但是将参数替换为/m/n/o/a/b/c/和/m/n/o/a/x/y/，你就会发现问题。

此外，它还需要在第一个for循环中进行else中断，否则它将错误地处理碰巧具有匹配目录名的路径，例如/a/b/c/d/和/x/y/c/z——c在两个数组中的同一个槽中，但不是真正的匹配。

所有这些解决方案都缺乏处理不能相互相对化的路径的能力，因为它们具有不兼容的根，例如C:\foo\bar和D:\baz\quux。可能只是Windows上的一个问题，但值得注意。

我花在这上面的时间比我预期的要长得多，但没关系。我实际上需要这个工作，所以感谢每个人的插话，我相信这个版本也会有修正!

public static String getRelativePath(String targetPath, String basePath, 
        String pathSeparator) {

    //  We need the -1 argument to split to make sure we get a trailing 
    //  "" token if the base ends in the path separator and is therefore
    //  a directory. We require directory paths to end in the path
    //  separator -- otherwise they are indistinguishable from files.
    String[] base = basePath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), -1);
    String[] target = targetPath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), 0);

    //  First get all the common elements. Store them as a string,
    //  and also count how many of them there are. 
    String common = "";
    int commonIndex = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < target.length && i < base.length; i++) {
        if (target[i].equals(base[i])) {
            common += target[i] + pathSeparator;
            commonIndex++;
        }
        else break;
    }

    if (commonIndex == 0)
    {
        //  Whoops -- not even a single common path element. This most
        //  likely indicates differing drive letters, like C: and D:. 
        //  These paths cannot be relativized. Return the target path.
        return targetPath;
        //  This should never happen when all absolute paths
        //  begin with / as in *nix. 
    }

    String relative = "";
    if (base.length == commonIndex) {
        //  Comment this out if you prefer that a relative path not start with ./
        //relative = "." + pathSeparator;
    }
    else {
        int numDirsUp = base.length - commonIndex - 1;
        //  The number of directories we have to backtrack is the length of 
        //  the base path MINUS the number of common path elements, minus
        //  one because the last element in the path isn't a directory.
        for (int i = 1; i <= (numDirsUp); i++) {
            relative += ".." + pathSeparator;
        }
    }
    relative += targetPath.substring(common.length());

    return relative;
}

下面是几种情况下的测试:

public void testGetRelativePathsUnixy() 
{        
    assertEquals("stuff/xyz.dat", FileUtils.getRelativePath(
            "/var/data/stuff/xyz.dat", "/var/data/", "/"));
    assertEquals("../../b/c", FileUtils.getRelativePath(
            "/a/b/c", "/a/x/y/", "/"));
    assertEquals("../../b/c", FileUtils.getRelativePath(
            "/m/n/o/a/b/c", "/m/n/o/a/x/y/", "/"));
}

public void testGetRelativePathFileToFile() 
{
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common\\sapisvr.exe";

    String relPath = FileUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals("..\\..\\..\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf", relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathDirectoryToFile() 
{
    String target = "C:\\Windows\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf";
    String base = "C:\\Windows\\Speech\\Common";

    String relPath = FileUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals("..\\..\\Boot\\Fonts\\chs_boot.ttf", relPath);
}

public void testGetRelativePathDifferentDriveLetters() 
{
    String target = "D:\\sources\\recovery\\RecEnv.exe";
    String base   = "C:\\Java\\workspace\\AcceptanceTests\\Standard test data\\geo\\";

    //  Should just return the target path because of the incompatible roots.
    String relPath = FileUtils.getRelativePath(target, base, "\\");
    assertEquals(target, relPath);
}

下面是一个从基本路径解析相对路径的方法，不管它们在相同或不同的根路径中:

public static String GetRelativePath(String path, String base){

    final String SEP = "/";

    // if base is not a directory -> return empty
    if (!base.endsWith(SEP)){
        return "";
    }

    // check if path is a file -> remove last "/" at the end of the method
    boolean isfile = !path.endsWith(SEP);

    // get URIs and split them by using the separator
    String a = "";
    String b = "";
    try {
        a = new File(base).getCanonicalFile().toURI().getPath();
        b = new File(path).getCanonicalFile().toURI().getPath();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    String[] basePaths = a.split(SEP);
    String[] otherPaths = b.split(SEP);

    // check common part
    int n = 0;
    for(; n < basePaths.length && n < otherPaths.length; n ++)
    {
        if( basePaths[n].equals(otherPaths[n]) == false )
            break;
    }

    // compose the new path
    StringBuffer tmp = new StringBuffer("");
    for(int m = n; m < basePaths.length; m ++)
        tmp.append(".."+SEP);
    for(int m = n; m < otherPaths.length; m ++)
    {
        tmp.append(otherPaths[m]);
        tmp.append(SEP);
    }

    // get path string
    String result = tmp.toString();

    // remove last "/" if path is a file
    if (isfile && result.endsWith(SEP)){
        result = result.substring(0,result.length()-1);
    }

    return result;
}

private String relative(String left, String right){
    String[] lefts = left.split("/");
    String[] rights = right.split("/");
    int min = Math.min(lefts.length, rights.length);
    int commonIdx = -1;
    for(int i = 0; i < min; i++){
        if(commonIdx < 0 && !lefts[i].equals(rights[i])){
            commonIdx = i - 1;
            break;
        }
    }
    if(commonIdx < 0){
        return null;
    }
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(Math.max(left.length(), right.length()));
    sb.append(left).append("/");
    for(int i = commonIdx + 1; i < lefts.length;i++){
        sb.append("../");
    }
    for(int i = commonIdx + 1; i < rights.length;i++){
        sb.append(rights[i]).append("/");
    }

    return sb.deleteCharAt(sb.length() -1).toString();
}

酷! !我需要一些类似这样的代码，但用于比较Linux机器上的目录路径。我发现这在父目录为目标的情况下不起作用。

下面是该方法的目录友好版本:

 public static String getRelativePath(String targetPath, String basePath, 
     String pathSeparator) {

 boolean isDir = false;
 {
   File f = new File(targetPath);
   isDir = f.isDirectory();
 }
 //  We need the -1 argument to split to make sure we get a trailing 
 //  "" token if the base ends in the path separator and is therefore
 //  a directory. We require directory paths to end in the path
 //  separator -- otherwise they are indistinguishable from files.
 String[] base = basePath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), -1);
 String[] target = targetPath.split(Pattern.quote(pathSeparator), 0);

 //  First get all the common elements. Store them as a string,
 //  and also count how many of them there are. 
 String common = "";
 int commonIndex = 0;
 for (int i = 0; i < target.length && i < base.length; i++) {
     if (target[i].equals(base[i])) {
         common += target[i] + pathSeparator;
         commonIndex++;
     }
     else break;
 }

 if (commonIndex == 0)
 {
     //  Whoops -- not even a single common path element. This most
     //  likely indicates differing drive letters, like C: and D:. 
     //  These paths cannot be relativized. Return the target path.
     return targetPath;
     //  This should never happen when all absolute paths
     //  begin with / as in *nix. 
 }

 String relative = "";
 if (base.length == commonIndex) {
     //  Comment this out if you prefer that a relative path not start with ./
     relative = "." + pathSeparator;
 }
 else {
     int numDirsUp = base.length - commonIndex - (isDir?0:1); /* only subtract 1 if it  is a file. */
     //  The number of directories we have to backtrack is the length of 
     //  the base path MINUS the number of common path elements, minus
     //  one because the last element in the path isn't a directory.
     for (int i = 1; i <= (numDirsUp); i++) {
         relative += ".." + pathSeparator;
     }
 }
 //if we are comparing directories then we 
 if (targetPath.length() > common.length()) {
  //it's OK, it isn't a directory
  relative += targetPath.substring(common.length());
 }

 return relative;
}