NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     dirname - report the parent directory name of a file pathname

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <libgen.h>

     char *
     dirname(char *path);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     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    [Toc]    [Back]

     The dirname() function returns a pointer to a string that is the parent
     directory of path.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     basename(3)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     +o   X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4.2 (``XPG4.2'')
     +o

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     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 .

BSD                            October 16, 2002                            BSD