[python] Python: Get relative path from comparing two absolute paths

Say, I have two absolute paths. I need to check if the location referring to by one of the paths is a descendant of the other. If true, I need to find out the relative path of the descendant from the ancestor. What's a good way to implement this in Python? Any library that I can benefit from?

os.path.relpath:

Return a relative filepath to path either from the current directory or from an optional start point.

>>> from os.path import relpath
>>> relpath('/usr/var/log/', '/usr/var')
'log'
>>> relpath('/usr/var/log/', '/usr/var/sad/')
'../log'

So, if relative path starts with '..' - it means that the second path is not descendant of the first path.

In Python3 you can use PurePath.relative_to:

Python 3.5.1 (default, Jan 22 2016, 08:54:32)
>>> from pathlib import Path

>>> Path('/usr/var/log').relative_to('/usr/var/log/')
PosixPath('.')

>>> Path('/usr/var/log').relative_to('/usr/var/')
PosixPath('log')

>>> Path('/usr/var/log').relative_to('/etc/')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.5.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/lib/python3.5/pathlib.py", line 851, in relative_to
    .format(str(self), str(formatted)))
ValueError: '/usr/var/log' does not start with '/etc'

Pure Python2 w/o dep:

def relpath(cwd, path):
    """Create a relative path for path from cwd, if possible"""
    if sys.platform == "win32":
        cwd = cwd.lower()
        path = path.lower()
    _cwd = os.path.abspath(cwd).split(os.path.sep)
    _path = os.path.abspath(path).split(os.path.sep)
    eq_until_pos = None
    for i in xrange(min(len(_cwd), len(_path))):
        if _cwd[i] == _path[i]:
            eq_until_pos = i
        else:
            break
    if eq_until_pos is None:
        return path
    newpath = [".." for i in xrange(len(_cwd[eq_until_pos+1:]))]
    newpath.extend(_path[eq_until_pos+1:])
    return os.path.join(*newpath) if newpath else "."

Edit : See jme's answer for the best way with Python3.

Using pathlib, you have the following solution :

Let's say we want to check if son is a descendant of parent, and both are Path objects. We can get a list of the parts in the path with list(parent.parts). Then, we just check that the begining of the son is equal to the list of segments of the parent.

>>> lparent = list(parent.parts)
>>> lson = list(son.parts)
>>> if lson[:len(lparent)] == lparent:
>>> ... #parent is a parent of son :)

If you want to get the remaining part, you can just do

>>> ''.join(lson[len(lparent):])

It's a string, but you can of course use it as a constructor of an other Path object.

Another option is

>>> print os.path.relpath('/usr/var/log/', '/usr/var')
log

A write-up of jme's suggestion, using pathlib, in Python 3.

from pathlib import Path
parent = Path(r'/a/b')
son = Path(r'/a/b/c/d')            
?
if parent in son.parents or parent==son:
    print(son.relative_to(parent)) # returns Path object equivalent to 'c/d'