DIRNAME(3) BSD Library Functions Manual DIRNAME(3)NAMEdirname — extract the directory part of a pathname
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <libgen.h>
char *
dirname(const char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The dirname() function is the converse of basename(3); it returns a
pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by path. Any
trailing ‘/’ characters are not counted as part of the directory name.
If path is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no ‘/’ charac‐
ters, dirname() returns a pointer to the string ".", signifying the cur‐
rent directory.
RETURN VALUES
On successful completion, dirname() returns a pointer to the parent
directory of path.
If dirname() fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable
errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The following error codes may be set in errno:
[ENAMETOOLONG] The path component to be returned was larger than
MAXPATHLEN.
WARNINGS
The dirname() function returns a pointer to internal static storage space
that will be overwritten by subsequent calls (each function has its own
separate storage).
Other vendor implementations of dirname() may modify the contents of the
string passed to dirname(); this should be taken into account when writ‐
ing code which calls this function if portability is desired.
SEE ALSObasename(1), dirname(1), basename(3)STANDARDS
The dirname() function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4,
Version 2 (“XPG4.2”).
HISTORY
The dirname() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2 and FreeBSD 4.2.
AUTHORS
Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>
BSD August 17, 1997 BSD
