Returns a path that is this path with redundant name elements eliminated.

The precise definition of this method is implementation dependent but in general it derives from this path, a path that does not contain redundant name elements. In many file systems, the " ." and " .." are special names used to indicate the current directory and parent directory. In such file systems all occurrences of " ." are considered redundant. If a " .." is preceded by a non-" .." name then both names are considered redundant (the process to identify such names is repeated until it is no longer applicable).

This method does not access the file system; the path may not locate a file that exists. Eliminating " .." and a preceding name from a path may result in the path that locates a different file than the original path. This can arise when the preceding name is a symbolic link.

Returns: the resulting path or this path if it does not contain redundant name elements; an empty path is returned if this path does have a root component and all name elements are redundant