Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help 
DIRNAME(3)		     Library Functions Manual		      DIRNAME(3)

NAME
     dirname -- extract the directory part of a pathname

SYNOPSIS
     #include <libgen.h>

     char *
     dirname(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.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
     This implementation of dirname() uses the buffer provided by the caller  to
     store the resulting parent directory.  Other vendor implementations may re-
     turn  a  pointer  to  internal storage space instead.  The advantage of the
     former approach is that it ensures thread-safety, while also placing no up-
     per limit on the supported length of the pathname.

RETURN VALUES
     If path is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no `/' characters,
     dirname() returns a pointer to the string ".", signifying the  current  di-
     rectory.  Otherwise, it returns a pointer to the parent directory of path.

SEE ALSO
     basename(1), dirname(1), basename(3)

STANDARDS
     The  dirname()  function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Ver-
     sion 2 ("XPG4.2").

HISTORY
     The dirname() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2 and FreeBSD 4.2.

     In FreeBSD 12.0, this function was reimplemented to store its result in the
     provided input buffer.

AUTHORS
     Nuxi, the Netherlands

FreeBSD ports 15.1		September 5, 2016		      DIRNAME(3)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dirname&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help