docs: def hard_path(path, prefix_dir):
      """Returns an absolute path to either the relative or absolute file."""
      relative = abspath("%s/%s" % (prefix_dir, path))
      a_path = abspath(path)
      if os.path.exists(relative):
          LOG.debug("using relative path %s (%s)", relative, path)
          return relative
  
      LOG.debug("using absolute path %s", a_path)
      return a_path