NAME
dirname —
extract the directory part of a
pathname
SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
dirname(char *path);
char *
dirname_r(const char *path,
char *dname);
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.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The dirname() function returns a pointer
to internal storage space allocated on the first call that will be
overwritten by subsequent calls. dirname_r() is
therefore preferred for threaded applications.
Other vendor implementations of dirname()
may modify the contents of the string passed to
dirname(); if portability is desired, this should be
taken into account when writing code which calls this function.
LEGACY SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
dirname(const
char *path);;
In legacy mode, path will not be changed.
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
MAXPATHLEN. - [
ENOMEM] - The static buffer used for storing the path in
dirname() could not be allocated.
SEE ALSO
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 and FreeBSD 4.2.
The dirname_r() function first appeared in OS X
10.12.
AUTHORS
Todd C. Miller