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

我把你的问题作为一个挑战，用“可移植的”shell代码来编写它，即。

考虑到POSIX外壳 没有数组之类的bashisms 避免像打瘟疫一样打外部电话。脚本中没有一个分叉!这使得它非常快，特别是在有显著分叉开销的系统上，比如cygwin。 必须处理路径名中的glob字符(*，?，[，])

它运行在任何POSIX兼容shell (zsh, bash, ksh, ash, busybox，…)上。它甚至包含一个测试套件来验证其操作。路径名的规范化留作练习。: -)

#!/bin/sh

# Find common parent directory path for a pair of paths.
# Call with two pathnames as args, e.g.
# commondirpart foo/bar foo/baz/bat -> result="foo/"
# The result is either empty or ends with "/".
commondirpart () {
   result=""
   while test ${#1} -gt 0 -a ${#2} -gt 0; do
      if test "${1%${1#?}}" != "${2%${2#?}}"; then   # First characters the same?
         break                                       # No, we're done comparing.
      fi
      result="$result${1%${1#?}}"                    # Yes, append to result.
      set -- "${1#?}" "${2#?}"                       # Chop first char off both strings.
   done
   case "$result" in
   (""|*/) ;;
   (*)     result="${result%/*}/";;
   esac
}

# Turn foo/bar/baz into ../../..
#
dir2dotdot () {
   OLDIFS="$IFS" IFS="/" result=""
   for dir in $1; do
      result="$result../"
   done
   result="${result%/}"
   IFS="$OLDIFS"
}

# Call with FROM TO args.
relativepath () {
   case "$1" in
   (*//*|*/./*|*/../*|*?/|*/.|*/..)
      printf '%s\n' "'$1' not canonical"; exit 1;;
   (/*)
      from="${1#?}";;
   (*)
      printf '%s\n' "'$1' not absolute"; exit 1;;
   esac
   case "$2" in
   (*//*|*/./*|*/../*|*?/|*/.|*/..)
      printf '%s\n' "'$2' not canonical"; exit 1;;
   (/*)
      to="${2#?}";;
   (*)
      printf '%s\n' "'$2' not absolute"; exit 1;;
   esac

   case "$to" in
   ("$from")   # Identical directories.
      result=".";;
   ("$from"/*) # From /x to /x/foo/bar -> foo/bar
      result="${to##$from/}";;
   ("")        # From /foo/bar to / -> ../..
      dir2dotdot "$from";;
   (*)
      case "$from" in
      ("$to"/*)       # From /x/foo/bar to /x -> ../..
         dir2dotdot "${from##$to/}";;
      (*)             # Everything else.
         commondirpart "$from" "$to"
         common="$result"
         dir2dotdot "${from#$common}"
         result="$result/${to#$common}"
      esac
      ;;
   esac
}

set -f # noglob

set -x
cat <<EOF |
/ / .
/- /- .
/? /? .
/?? /?? .
/??? /??? .
/?* /?* .
/* /* .
/* /** ../**
/* /*** ../***
/*.* /*.** ../*.**
/*.??? /*.?? ../*.??
/[] /[] .
/[a-z]* /[0-9]* ../[0-9]*
/foo /foo .
/foo / ..
/foo/bar / ../..
/foo/bar /foo ..
/foo/bar /foo/baz ../baz
/foo/bar /bar/foo  ../../bar/foo
/foo/bar/baz /gnarf/blurfl/blubb ../../../gnarf/blurfl/blubb
/foo/bar/baz /gnarf ../../../gnarf
/foo/bar/baz /foo/baz ../../baz
/foo. /bar. ../bar.
EOF
while read FROM TO VIA; do
   relativepath "$FROM" "$TO"
   printf '%s\n' "FROM: $FROM" "TO:   $TO" "VIA:  $result"
   if test "$result" != "$VIA"; then
      printf '%s\n' "OOOPS! Expected '$VIA' but got '$result'"
   fi
done

# vi: set tabstop=3 shiftwidth=3 expandtab fileformat=unix :

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
}

这个答案并没有解决问题的Bash部分，但是因为我试图使用这个问题中的答案在Emacs中实现这个功能，所以我就把它扔到那里。

Emacs实际上有一个开箱即用的函数:

ELISP> (file-relative-name "/a/b/c" "/a/b/c")
"."
ELISP> (file-relative-name "/a/b/c" "/a/b")
"c"
ELISP> (file-relative-name "/a/b/c" "/c/b")
"../../a/b/c"

#!/bin/sh

# Return relative path from canonical absolute dir path $1 to canonical
# absolute dir path $2 ($1 and/or $2 may end with one or no "/").
# Does only need POSIX shell builtins (no external command)
relPath () {
    local common path up
    common=${1%/} path=${2%/}/
    while test "${path#"$common"/}" = "$path"; do
        common=${common%/*} up=../$up
    done
    path=$up${path#"$common"/}; path=${path%/}; printf %s "${path:-.}"
}

# Return relative path from dir $1 to dir $2 (Does not impose any
# restrictions on $1 and $2 but requires GNU Core Utility "readlink"
# HINT: busybox's "readlink" does not support option '-m', only '-f'
#       which requires that all but the last path component must exist)
relpath () { relPath "$(readlink -m "$1")" "$(readlink -m "$2")"; }

上面的shell脚本是受pini的启发(谢谢!)它会触发一个错误 在Stack Overflow的语法高亮显示模块中(至少在我的预览中是这样) 帧)。因此，如果高亮显示不正确，请忽略。

一些注意事项:

Removed errors and improved code without significantly increasing code length and complexity Put functionality into functions for easiness of use Kept functions POSIX compatible so that they (should) work with all POSIX shells (tested with dash, bash, and zsh in Ubuntu Linux 12.04) Used local variables only to avoid clobbering global variables and polluting the global name space Both directory paths DO NOT need to exist (requirement for my application) Pathnames may contain spaces, special characters, control characters, backslashes, tabs, ', ", ?, *, [, ], etc. Core function "relPath" uses POSIX shell builtins only but requires canonical absolute directory paths as parameters Extended function "relpath" can handle arbitrary directory paths (also relative, non-canonical) but requires external GNU core utility "readlink" Avoided builtin "echo" and used builtin "printf" instead for two reasons: Due to conflicting historical implementations of builtin "echo" it behaves differently in different shells -> POSIX recommends that printf is preferred over echo. Builtin "echo" of some POSIX shells will interpret some backslash sequences and thus corrupt pathnames containing such sequences To avoid unnecessary conversions, pathnames are used as they are returned and expected by shell and OS utilities (e.g. cd, ln, ls, find, mkdir; unlike python's "os.path.relpath" which will interpret some backslash sequences) Except for the mentioned backslash sequences the last line of function "relPath" outputs pathnames compatible to python: path=$up${path#"$common"/}; path=${path%/}; printf %s "${path:-.}" Last line can be replaced (and simplified) by line printf %s "$up${path#"$common"/}" I prefer the latter because Filenames can be directly appended to dir paths obtained by relPath, e.g.: ln -s "$(relpath "<fromDir>" "<toDir>")<file>" "<fromDir>" Symbolic links in the same dir created with this method do not have the ugly "./" prepended to the filename. If you find an error please contact linuxball (at) gmail.com and I'll try to fix it. Added regression test suite (also POSIX shell compatible)

回归测试的代码清单(只需将其附加到shell脚本):

############################################################################
# If called with 2 arguments assume they are dir paths and print rel. path #
############################################################################

test "$#" = 2 && {
    printf '%s\n' "Rel. path from '$1' to '$2' is '$(relpath "$1" "$2")'."
    exit 0
}

#######################################################
# If NOT called with 2 arguments run regression tests #
#######################################################

format="\t%-19s %-22s %-27s %-8s %-8s %-8s\n"
printf \
"\n\n*** Testing own and python's function with canonical absolute dirs\n\n"
printf "$format\n" \
    "From Directory" "To Directory" "Rel. Path" "relPath" "relpath" "python"
IFS=
while read -r p; do
    eval set -- $p
    case $1 in '#'*|'') continue;; esac # Skip comments and empty lines
    # q stores quoting character, use " if ' is used in path name
    q="'"; case $1$2 in *"'"*) q='"';; esac
    rPOk=passed rP=$(relPath "$1" "$2"); test "$rP" = "$3" || rPOk=$rP
    rpOk=passed rp=$(relpath "$1" "$2"); test "$rp" = "$3" || rpOk=$rp
    RPOk=passed
    RP=$(python -c "import os.path; print os.path.relpath($q$2$q, $q$1$q)")
    test "$RP" = "$3" || RPOk=$RP
    printf \
    "$format" "$q$1$q" "$q$2$q" "$q$3$q" "$q$rPOk$q" "$q$rpOk$q" "$q$RPOk$q"
done <<-"EOF"
    # From directory    To directory           Expected relative path

    '/'                 '/'                    '.'
    '/usr'              '/'                    '..'
    '/usr/'             '/'                    '..'
    '/'                 '/usr'                 'usr'
    '/'                 '/usr/'                'usr'
    '/usr'              '/usr'                 '.'
    '/usr/'             '/usr'                 '.'
    '/usr'              '/usr/'                '.'
    '/usr/'             '/usr/'                '.'
    '/u'                '/usr'                 '../usr'
    '/usr'              '/u'                   '../u'
    "/u'/dir"           "/u'/dir"              "."
    "/u'"               "/u'/dir"              "dir"
    "/u'/dir"           "/u'"                  ".."
    "/"                 "/u'/dir"              "u'/dir"
    "/u'/dir"           "/"                    "../.."
    "/u'"               "/u'"                  "."
    "/"                 "/u'"                  "u'"
    "/u'"               "/"                    ".."
    '/u"/dir'           '/u"/dir'              '.'
    '/u"'               '/u"/dir'              'dir'
    '/u"/dir'           '/u"'                  '..'
    '/'                 '/u"/dir'              'u"/dir'
    '/u"/dir'           '/'                    '../..'
    '/u"'               '/u"'                  '.'
    '/'                 '/u"'                  'u"'
    '/u"'               '/'                    '..'
    '/u /dir'           '/u /dir'              '.'
    '/u '               '/u /dir'              'dir'
    '/u /dir'           '/u '                  '..'
    '/'                 '/u /dir'              'u /dir'
    '/u /dir'           '/'                    '../..'
    '/u '               '/u '                  '.'
    '/'                 '/u '                  'u '
    '/u '               '/'                    '..'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/u\n/dir'             '.'
    '/u\n'              '/u\n/dir'             'dir'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/u\n'                 '..'
    '/'                 '/u\n/dir'             'u\n/dir'
    '/u\n/dir'          '/'                    '../..'
    '/u\n'              '/u\n'                 '.'
    '/'                 '/u\n'                 'u\n'
    '/u\n'              '/'                    '..'

    '/    a   b/å/⮀*/!' '/    a   b/å/⮀/xäå/?' '../../⮀/xäå/?'
    '/'                 '/A'                   'A'
    '/A'                '/'                    '..'
    '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'  '/'                    '../../../../..'
    '/'                 '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'     '  & /  !/*/\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/*/\\/E'  '/  & /  !/?/\\/E/F'   '../../../?/\\/E/F'
    '/X/Y'              '/  & /  !/C/\\/E/F'   '../../  & /  !/C/\\/E/F'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/A'                   '../../../A'
    '/A /  !/C'         '/A /B'                '../../B'
    '/Â/  !/C'          '/Â/  !/C'             '.'
    '/  & /B / C'       '/  & /B / C/D'        'D'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /  !/C/\\/Ê'     '\\/Ê'
    '/Å/  !/C'          '/Å/  !/D'             '../D'
    '/.A /*B/C'         '/.A /*B/\\/E'         '../\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /D'              '../../D'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/  & /\\/E'           '../../\\/E'
    '/  & /  !/C'       '/\\/E/F'              '../../../\\/E/F'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p3'          '../p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p4/p5'          '../../p4/p5'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p6/p7'          '../../../work/p6/p7'
    '/home/p1'          '/work/p1/p2/p3/p4'    '../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
    '/home'             '/work/p2/p3'          '../work/p2/p3'
    '/'                 '/work/p2/p3/p4'       'work/p2/p3/p4'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2/p3/p4'    'p3/p4'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2/p3'       'p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1/p2'          '.'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home/p1'             '..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/home'                '../..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/'                    '../../..'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work'                '../../../work'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1'             '../../../work/p1'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2'          '../../../work/p1/p2'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2/p3'       '../../../work/p1/p2/p3'
    '/home/p1/p2'       '/work/p1/p2/p3/p4'    '../../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'

    '/-'                '/-'                   '.'
    '/?'                '/?'                   '.'
    '/??'               '/??'                  '.'
    '/???'              '/???'                 '.'
    '/?*'               '/?*'                  '.'
    '/*'                '/*'                   '.'
    '/*'                '/**'                  '../**'
    '/*'                '/***'                 '../***'
    '/*.*'              '/*.**'                '../*.**'
    '/*.???'            '/*.??'                '../*.??'
    '/[]'               '/[]'                  '.'
    '/[a-z]*'           '/[0-9]*'              '../[0-9]*'
EOF


format="\t%-19s %-22s %-27s %-8s %-8s\n"
printf "\n\n*** Testing own and python's function with arbitrary dirs\n\n"
printf "$format\n" \
    "From Directory" "To Directory" "Rel. Path" "relpath" "python"
IFS=
while read -r p; do
    eval set -- $p
    case $1 in '#'*|'') continue;; esac # Skip comments and empty lines
    # q stores quoting character, use " if ' is used in path name
    q="'"; case $1$2 in *"'"*) q='"';; esac
    rpOk=passed rp=$(relpath "$1" "$2"); test "$rp" = "$3" || rpOk=$rp
    RPOk=passed
    RP=$(python -c "import os.path; print os.path.relpath($q$2$q, $q$1$q)")
    test "$RP" = "$3" || RPOk=$RP
    printf "$format" "$q$1$q" "$q$2$q" "$q$3$q" "$q$rpOk$q" "$q$RPOk$q"
done <<-"EOF"
    # From directory    To directory           Expected relative path

    'usr/p1/..//./p4'   'p3/../p1/p6/.././/p2' '../../p1/p2'
    './home/../../work' '..//././../dir///'    '../../dir'

    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p3'           '../p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p4/p5'           '../../p4/p5'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p6/p7'           '../../../work/p6/p7'
    'home/p1'           'work/p1/p2/p3/p4'     '../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
    'home'              'work/p2/p3'           '../work/p2/p3'
    '.'                 'work/p2/p3'           'work/p2/p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2/p3/p4'     'p3/p4'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2/p3'        'p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1/p2'           '.'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home/p1'              '..'
    'home/p1/p2'        'home'                 '../..'
    'home/p1/p2'        '.'                    '../../..'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work'                 '../../../work'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1'              '../../../work/p1'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2'           '../../../work/p1/p2'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2/p3'        '../../../work/p1/p2/p3'
    'home/p1/p2'        'work/p1/p2/p3/p4'     '../../../work/p1/p2/p3/p4'
EOF