How to normalize a path in PowerShell?

Question

I have two paths:

fred\\frog

and

..\\frag

I can join them together in PowerShell like this:

Answer 1

You could also use Path.GetFullPath, although (as with Dan R's answer) this will give you the entire path. Usage would be as follows:

[IO.Path]::GetFullPath( "fred\frog\..\frag" )

or more interestingly

[IO.Path]::GetFullPath( (join-path "fred\frog" "..\frag") )

both of which yield the following (assuming your current directory is D:\):

D:\fred\frag

Note that this method does not attempt to determine whether fred or frag actually exist.