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BASENAME(P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		   BASENAME(P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       basename - return non-directory portion of a pathname

SYNOPSIS
       basename string [suffix]

DESCRIPTION
       The string operand shall be treated as a pathname, as  defined  in  the
       Base  Definitions  volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 3.266, Path‐
       name. The string string shall be converted to the filename  correspond‐
       ing to the last pathname component in string and then the suffix string
       suffix, if present, shall be removed. This shall be done by  performing
       actions equivalent to the following steps in order:

	1. If string is a null string, it is unspecified whether the resulting
	   string is '.' or a null  string.  In	 either	 case,	skip  steps  2
	   through 6.

	2. If string is "//" , it is implementation-defined whether steps 3 to
	   6 are skipped or processed.

	3. If string consists entirely of slash characters,  string  shall  be
	   set to a single slash character. In this case, skip steps 4 to 6.

	4. If there are any trailing slash characters in string, they shall be
	   removed.

	5. If there are any slash characters remaining in string,  the	prefix
	   of  string  up  to and including the last slash character in string
	   shall be removed.

	6. If the suffix operand is present, is not identical to  the  charac‐
	   ters remaining in string, and is identical to a suffix of the char‐
	   acters remaining in string, the suffix suffix shall be removed from
	   string.  Otherwise,	string	is not modified by this step. It shall
	   not be considered an error if suffix is not found in string.

       The resulting string shall be written to standard output.

OPTIONS
       None.

OPERANDS
       The following operands shall be supported:

       string A string.

       suffix A string.

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of base‐
       name:

       LANG   Provide  a  default value for the internationalization variables
	      that are unset or null. (See  the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
	      IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  8.2,  Internationalization Vari‐
	      ables for the precedence of internationalization variables  used
	      to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If  set  to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
	      the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE
	      Determine the locale for	the  interpretation  of	 sequences  of
	      bytes  of	 text  data as characters (for example, single-byte as
	      opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
	      Determine the locale that should be used to  affect  the	format
	      and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
	      Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
	      LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       The basename utility shall write a line to the standard output  in  the
       following format:

	      "%s\n", <resulting string>

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0     Successful completion.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       The  definition	of  pathname specifies implementation-defined behavior
       for pathnames starting with two slash characters.  Therefore,  applica‐
       tions  shall not arbitrarily add slashes to the beginning of a pathname
       unless they can ensure that there are more or less than two or are pre‐
       pared to deal with the implementation-defined consequences.

EXAMPLES
       If the string string is a valid pathname:

	      $(basename "string")

       produces a filename that could be used to open the file named by string
       in the directory returned by:

	      $(dirname "string")

       If the string string is not a valid pathname,  the  same	 algorithm  is
       used,  but the result need not be a valid filename.  The basename util‐
       ity is not expected to make any judgements about the validity of string
       as  a  pathname;	 it  just follows the specified algorithm to produce a
       result string.

       The following shell script compiles /usr/src/cmd/cat.c  and  moves  the
       output  to  a file named cat in the current directory when invoked with
       the argument /usr/src/cmd/cat or with the argument /usr/src/cmd/cat.c:

	      c99 $(dirname "$1")/$(basename "$1" .c).c
	      mv a.out $(basename "$1" .c)

RATIONALE
       The behaviors of basename and dirname have  been	 coordinated  so  that
       when string is a valid pathname:

	      $(basename "string")

       would be a valid filename for the file in the directory:

	      $(dirname "string")

       This  would not work for the early proposal versions of these utilities
       due to the way it specified handling of trailing slashes.

       Since  the  definition  of  pathname  specifies	implementation-defined
       behavior	 for pathnames starting with two slash characters, this volume
       of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 specifies similar implementation-defined behav‐
       ior for the basename and dirname utilities.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       Parameters and Variables , dirname()

COPYRIGHT
       Portions	 of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating	System	Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003	by  the	 Institute  of
       Electrical  and	Electronics  Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
       is the referee document. The original Standard can be  obtained	online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2003			   BASENAME(P)
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