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Normalise file paths to a consistent absolute form

Source: R/general_normalize_path.R
normalize_path.Rd

Converts one or more file paths to their absolute, tidied canonical form using fs::path_abs() and fs::path_tidy(). Optionally errors if any path does not exist on disk or has a size of zero bytes.

Usage

normalize_path(path = ".", must_work = FALSE, check_size = FALSE)

Arguments

path

Character vector. One or more file or directory paths to normalise. Empty strings and NULL trigger an error. Default: "." (current working directory).

must_work

Logical. If TRUE, the function errors for any path in path that does not exist on disk (checked after normalisation). Default: FALSE.

check_size

Logical. If TRUE and must_work = TRUE, the function additionally errors if any of the (existing) paths points to a file of zero bytes. Ignored when must_work = FALSE or when any path refers to a directory rather than a file. Default: FALSE.

Value

A character vector of the same length as path, containing absolute, tidied paths. Redundant separators, . and .. components, and mixed-style slashes are all resolved.

Details

base::normalizePath() behaves inconsistently across platforms when a path does not exist: on Windows it attempts to construct an absolute path, while on Linux/macOS it returns the input unchanged (i.e. relative paths stay relative). This function uses fs::path_abs() instead, which always returns an absolute path regardless of whether the path exists or which platform is used.

Path tidying via fs::path_tidy() normalises directory separators to forward slashes and removes redundant separators and trailing slashes, making the output safe to use in both R and shell contexts across platforms.

When must_work = TRUE, existence is checked after normalisation so that relative inputs such as "." or "../" resolve correctly before the check is applied. The check_size check is subordinate to must_work: it only runs once all paths are confirmed to exist.

See also

fs::path_abs(), fs::path_tidy(), base::normalizePath()

Author

Ahmed El-Gabbas

Examples

# Current working directory
normalize_path(".")
#> /home/runner/work/ecokit/ecokit/docs/reference

# Parent directory
normalize_path("../")
#> /home/runner/work/ecokit/ecokit/docs

# First file in the working directory (if any)
if (length(list.files()) > 0L) {
  normalize_path(list.files()[[1L]])
}
#> /home/runner/work/ecokit/ecokit/docs/reference/OS.html

# Vectorised: multiple paths at once
normalize_path(c(".", "../"))
#> /home/runner/work/ecokit/ecokit/docs/reference
#> /home/runner/work/ecokit/ecokit/docs

# Windows-style separators are normalised on all platforms
normalize_path("D://Folder1//Folder2//file.txt")
#> D:/Folder1/Folder2/file.txt

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
  # Errors when must_work = TRUE and the path does not exist
  normalize_path("D://Folder1//Folder2//file.txt", must_work = TRUE)

  # Errors when must_work = TRUE, check_size = TRUE, and the file is empty
  empty_file <- fs::file_temp(pattern = "empty_")
  fs::file_create(empty_file)
  normalize_path(empty_file, must_work = TRUE, check_size = TRUE)
} # }