+# Makes a directory absolute and cleans out /../ in paths like foo/../bar
+# On some platforms, this uses rel2abs(), while on others, realpath() is used.
+# realpath() requires that at least all path components except the last is an
+# existing directory. On VMS, the last component of the directory spec must
+# exist.
+sub absolutedir {
+ my $dir = shift;
+
+ # realpath() is quite buggy on VMS. It uses LIB$FID_TO_NAME, which
+ # will return the volume name for the device, no matter what. Also,
+ # it will return an incorrect directory spec if the argument is a
+ # directory that doesn't exist.
+ if ($^O eq "VMS") {
+ return rel2abs($dir);
+ }
+
+ # We use realpath() on Unix, since no other will properly clean out
+ # a directory spec.
+ use Cwd qw/realpath/;
+
+ return realpath($dir);
+}
+