NAME
dirname —
report the parent directory name of a
file pathname
LIBRARY
library “libc”
SYNOPSIS
#include
<libgen.h>
char *
dirname(char
*path);
DESCRIPTION
Thedirname()
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
The dirname() function returns a pointer
to a string that is the parent directory of path.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
- X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”)
- IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”)
BUGS
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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(“POSIX.1”).