NAME
basename —
extract the base portion of a
pathname
SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
basename(char
*path);
char *
basename_r(const
char *path, char
*bname);
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.
The
basename_r()
variation accepts a buffer of at least MAXPATHLEN
bytes in which to store the resulting component.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The basename() function returns a pointer
to internal storage space allocated on the first call that will be
overwritten by subsequent calls. basename_r() is
therefore preferred for threaded applications.
RETURN VALUES
On successful completion, basename() and
basename_r() return pointers to the last component
of path.
If they fail, 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.
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 and FreeBSD 4.2.
The basename_r() function first appeared in OS X
10.12.
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.