NAME

dirname — extract the directory portion of a pathname

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 ‘/’ characters, dirname() returns a pointer to the string ".", signifying the current 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 PATH_MAX.

SEE ALSO

basename(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.

AUTHORS

Todd C. Miller

CAVEATS

dirname() 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 writing code which calls this function if portability is desired.