NAME

basename, dirname — return filename or directory portion of pathname

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

The basename utility deletes any prefix ending with the last slash ‘/’ character present in string (after first stripping trailing slashes), and a suffix, if given. The suffix is not stripped if it is identical to the remaining characters in string. The resulting filename is written to the standard output. A non-existent suffix is ignored. If -a is specified, then every argument is treated as a string as if basename were invoked with just one argument. If -s is specified, then the suffix is taken as its argument, and all other arguments are treated as a string.

The dirname utility deletes the filename portion, beginning with the last slash ‘/’ character to the end of string (after first stripping trailing slashes), and writes the result to the standard output.

EXIT STATUS

The basename and dirname utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

The following line sets the shell variable FOO to /usr/bin.

SEE ALSO

csh(1), sh(1), basename(3), dirname(3)

STANDARDS

The basename and dirname utilities are expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible.

HISTORY

The basename utility first appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX. The dirname utility first appeared in AT&T System III UNIX.