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

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

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'")')

#!/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/}

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

给:

../../bar

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。