Issue1423047

C:\temp>python
Python 2.4 (#60, Nov 30 2004, 11:49:19) [MSC v.1310 32
bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for
more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.path.abspath('..')
'C:\\'
>>> ^Z


C:\temp>jython
Jython 2.2a1 on java1.5.0_04 (JIT: null)
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more
information.
>>> import os
>>> os.path.abspath('..')
'C:\\temp\\..'
>>> os.path.normpath(os.path.abspath('..'))
'C:'
>>> ^Z

the answer may be to change in javapath.py:
def abspath(path):

    path = _tostr(path, "abspath")

    return File(path).getAbsolutePath()


to

def abspath(path):

    path = _tostr(path, "abspath")

    return File(path).getCanonicalPath()

using getCanonicalFile on Windows gives me the same answer as the python example above.

The javadoc for getCanonicalPath states:
 A canonical pathname is both absolute and unique. The precise definition of canonical form is system-dependent. This method first converts this pathname to absolute form if necessary, as if by invoking the getAbsolutePath() method, and then maps it to its unique form in a system-dependent way. This typically involves removing redundant names such as "." and ".." from the pathname, resolving symbolic links (on UNIX platforms), and converting drive letters to a standard case (on Microsoft Windows platforms).

Based on those javadocs and little playing on Jython interpreter getCanonicalPath really seems to be the answer. On top of things mentioned in javadocs it also fixes paths like 'c:\temp\\foo' -> 'c:\temp\foo'. Thanks for looking that up. 

getCanonicalPath looks right to me too.  Committed in r3071.

Unfortunately getCanonicalPath has two problems.

1) It raises an IOException in some cases (see e.g. bug [1])

2) It also eliminates symlinks which abspath doesn't do in CPython (there's realpath for that).

As I comment on [1] I have a patch solving both of these issues ready but need write some automated tests for it before submitting.

[1] http://jython.org/bugs/1661700

I opened a new bug for laukpe's #2 at http://jython.org/bugs/1662689 rather than just reverting this change since I feel like getCanonical's behavior is still better than the old code's.