portable realpath

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

| In the original UNIX filesystems, . and .. were real links.  I don't know
| if that is so in current filesystems.
| 
| You are not "supposed" to create links to directories.  It certainly
| could be done.  But then you've broken a rule and who knows what
| programs would then break (eg. find, dump).  I think that fsck checks
| for this problem.

I forgot to mention: if there were additional hard links to a
directory, .. would not be meaningful.  Currently it means the
(unique) parent directory of this directory (or the directory itself
if it is the root of a filesystem).
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