relativeURLit

relativeURLit is a library designed for working with URLs, with an emphasis on relative references. It provides utilities to derive relative URLs from a base URL and to resolve relative links found in documents into absolute URLs. The project aims for predictable behavior, RFC 3986 compatibility, and broad applicability across environments such as web browsers and server-side runtimes.

Its API typically includes functions such as toRelative(base, target) and toAbsolute(base, relative), or an equivalent URL resolver object. The toolkit handles path normalization, query strings, fragments, and protocol-relative URLs, and it validates inputs to avoid malformed results. It is intended to be language-agnostic, with bindings or ports for common platforms like JavaScript and Python.

Common use cases include generating portable HTML or documentation with links rooted at a site base, transforming harvested links for offline archives, and simplifying link representations in content pipelines. When base and target share an origin, a concise relative URL is produced; when they are on different origins, the original absolute URL is returned.

Design goals emphasize deterministic outputs, transparent edge-case handling, and easy integration into build processes. The project is distributed under an open-source license, accompanied by tests and documentation to support adoption and reliable behavior across toolchains.

Related concepts include relative URLs, URL normalization, and standards such as RFC 3986.