NAME
dirname —
report the parent directory
name of a file pathname
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <libgen.h>
char *
dirname(
char
*path);
DESCRIPTION
The
dirname() function takes a pointer to a character string
that contains a pathname,
path, and returns a pointer to
a string that is a pathname of the parent directory of
path. Trailing ‘/’ characters in
path are not counted as part of the path.
If
path does not contain a ‘/’, then
dirname() returns a pointer to the string “.”.
If
path is a null pointer or points to an empty string,
dirname() returns a pointer to the string “.”.
RETURN VALUES
The
dirname() function returns a pointer to a string that is
the parent directory of
path.
SEE ALSO
dirname(1),
basename(3)
STANDARDS
- X/Open
Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2
(“XPG4.2”)
- IEEE Std
1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”)
BUGS
If the length of the result is longer than
PATH_MAX
bytes (including the terminating nul), the result will be truncated.
The
dirname() function returns a pointer to static storage
that may be overwritten by subsequent calls to
dirname().
This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by
IEEE
Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).