NAME
basename —
extract the base portion of a
pathname
SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
basename(const
char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The
basename()
function returns the last component from the pathname pointed to by
path, deleting any trailing ‘/’
characters. If path consists entirely of
‘/’ characters, a pointer to the string "/" is
returned. If path is a null pointer or the empty
string, a pointer to the string "." is returned.
RETURN VALUES
On successful completion, basename()
returns a pointer to the last component of path.
If basename() 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
PATH_MAX.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The basename() function conforms to
X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2
(“XPG4.2”).
HISTORY
The basename() function first appeared in
OpenBSD 2.2.
AUTHORS
Todd C. Miller
CAVEATS
basename() returns a pointer to internal
static storage space that will be overwritten by subsequent calls.
Other vendor implementations of basename()
may modify the contents of the string passed to
basename(); this should be taken into account when
writing code which calls this function if portability is desired.