realpath is a simple implementation of the realpath utility: http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/realpath-invocation.html since Mac OS X does not have anything equivalent. This version takes no options. This is based on the default GNU/Linux implementation that allows the last component to not exist. This is different than the Debian implementation that requires the last component to exist. Supporting the GNU/Linux implementation makes writing scripts that depend on realpath much easier, and is probably closer to what Apple may actually ship as a realpath implementation in the future. realpath only builds/runs on Darwin.