这里的答案并不是每天都能用的。由于在纯bash中很难正确地做到这一点，我建议以下可靠的解决方案(类似于注释中的一个建议):

function relpath() { 
  python -c "import os,sys;print(os.path.relpath(*(sys.argv[1:])))" "$@";
}

然后，你可以得到基于当前目录的相对路径:

echo $(relpath somepath)

或者你可以指定路径相对于给定的目录:

echo $(relpath somepath /etc)  # relative to /etc

一个缺点是这需要python，但是:

它在任何python >= 2.6中工作相同 它不要求文件或目录存在。 文件名可以包含更广泛的特殊字符。 例如，如果文件名包含 空格或其他特殊字符。 它是一个单行函数，不会使脚本混乱。

注意，包含basename或dirname的解决方案不一定更好，因为它们要求安装coreutils。如果有人有可靠而简单的纯bash解决方案(而不是令人费解的好奇心)，我会感到惊讶。

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

这是我的版本。这是基于@Offirmo的回答。我使它与dash兼容，并修复了以下测试用例失败:

sh - compute-relative。“a / b / c - de - f / g " / a / b / c / def / g /" --> "../.. f - g - "

Now:

CT_FindRelativePath”a / b / c - de - f / g " / a / b / c / def / g /" --> "../../../ def - g”

查看代码:

# both $1 and $2 are absolute paths beginning with /
# returns relative path to $2/$target from $1/$source
CT_FindRelativePath()
{
    local insource=$1
    local intarget=$2

    # Ensure both source and target end with /
    # This simplifies the inner loop.
    #echo "insource : \"$insource\""
    #echo "intarget : \"$intarget\""
    case "$insource" in
        */) ;;
        *) source="$insource"/ ;;
    esac

    case "$intarget" in
        */) ;;
        *) target="$intarget"/ ;;
    esac

    #echo "source : \"$source\""
    #echo "target : \"$target\""

    local common_part=$source # for now

    local result=""

    #echo "common_part is now : \"$common_part\""
    #echo "result is now      : \"$result\""
    #echo "target#common_part : \"${target#$common_part}\""
    while [ "${target#$common_part}" = "${target}" -a "${common_part}" != "//" ]; 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
        if [ -z "${result}" ]; then
            result="../"
        else
            result="../$result"
        fi
        #echo "(w) common_part is now : \"$common_part\""
        #echo "(w) result is now      : \"$result\""
        #echo "(w) target#common_part : \"${target#$common_part}\""
    done

    #echo "(f) common_part is     : \"$common_part\""

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

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

    if [ -n "${result}" -a -n "${forward_part}" ]; then
        #echo "(simple concat)"
        result="$result$forward_part"
    elif [ -n "${forward_part}" ]; then
        result="$forward_part"
    fi
    #echo "result = \"$result\""

    # if a / was added to target and result ends in / then remove it now.
    if [ "$intarget" != "$target" ]; then
        case "$result" in
            */) result=$(echo "$result" | awk '{ string=substr($0, 1, length($0)-1); print string; }' ) ;;
        esac
    fi

    echo $result

    return 0
}

#!/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/}

该脚本仅对绝对路径或没有绝对路径的相对路径的输入提供正确的结果。或者. .:

#!/bin/bash

# usage: relpath from to

if [[ "$1" == "$2" ]]
then
    echo "."
    exit
fi

IFS="/"

current=($1)
absolute=($2)

abssize=${#absolute[@]}
cursize=${#current[@]}

while [[ ${absolute[level]} == ${current[level]} ]]
do
    (( level++ ))
    if (( level > abssize || level > cursize ))
    then
        break
    fi
done

for ((i = level; i < cursize; i++))
do
    if ((i > level))
    then
        newpath=$newpath"/"
    fi
    newpath=$newpath".."
done

for ((i = level; i < abssize; i++))
do
    if [[ -n $newpath ]]
    then
        newpath=$newpath"/"
    fi
    newpath=$newpath${absolute[i]}
done

echo "$newpath"

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'")')