Simplify Unix path

Here is my code for simplifying a Unix path. Any advice is highly appreciated, including higher efficiency from an algorithm time complexity perspective, or any bugs.

'''
Simplify Unix path
Given an absolute path for a file (Unix-style), simplify it.
For example,
path = "/home/", => "/home"
path = "/a/./b/../../c/", => "/c"
'''

def simplify_path(original_path):
    result = []
    levels = original_path.split('/')
    for level in levels:
        if level == '.':
            continue
        elif level == '..':
            result.pop(-1)
        else:
            result.append(level)

    result_str = '/'.join(result)
    return result_str[0:len(result_str)-1]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print simplify_path('/a/./b/../../c/')
    print simplify_path('/home/')

There's definitely an easier way of doing this. You can use os.path.realpath() to get the canonical path.


os.path.realpath(path)

Return the canonical path of the specified
filename, eliminating any symbolic links encountered in the path (if
they are supported by the operating system).

Example:

from os.path import realpath

def simplify_path(original_path):
"""
Given an absolute path for a file, simplify it
"""
    return realpath(original_path)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    print(simplify_path('/a/./b/../../c/'))
    print(simplify_path('/home/'))

[dexter@localhost]$ python simplify_path.py 
/c
/home

StackExchange Code Review Q#149058, answer score: 5