NAME
basename —
extract the base portion of a
pathname
SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
basename(const
char *path);
char *
basename_r(const
char *path, char
*bname);
DESCRIPTION
Thebasename()
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.
Other vendor implementations of basename()
may store their result in the input buffer, making it safe to use in
multithreaded applications. Future versions of
FreeBSD will follow this approach as well.
basename_r() will then become obsolete.
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.
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.