There is a process for performing API path normalization.

Function NORMALIZEPATH() performs the following steps:

1. Verifies that the path name is absolute (starts with a /).

2. Collapses multiple consecutive /s into a single /.

3. Strips trailing /s.

4. Breaks store-specific normalized path names into two components: the parent path name and the trailing component name.

5. Breaks fully qualified normalized path names into three components: store name, parent path name, and trailing component name.

Note that the root path / is special: its parent path name is also /, and its component name is null. In fully qualified mode, it has a null store name unless a singleton mount has been created, in which case the appropriate store name is returned.

The return value is always the completely normalized store-specific or fully qualified path name.