dirname(3G)

dirname -- report the parent directory name of a file path name

Synopsis

   cc [flag . . . ] file . . . -lgen [library] . . .
   
   #include <libgen.h>
   

   char dirname(char path);

Description

Given a pointer to a null-terminated character string that contains a file system path name, dirname returns a pointer to a static constant string that is the parent directory of that file. In doing this, it sometimes places a null byte in the path name after the next to last element, so the content of path must be disposable. Trailing ``/'' characters in the path are not counted as part of the path.

If path or path does not contain ``/'', a pointer to a static constant . is returned.

dirname and basename(3G) together yield a complete path name. dirname (path) is the directory where basename (path) is found.

References

basename(1), basename(3G), chdir(2)

Examples

A simple file name and the strings ``.'' and ``..'' all have ``.'' as their return value.

Input string Output pointer

/usr/lib /usr

/usr/ /

usr .

/ /

. .

.. .

Input string	Output pointer
`/usr/lib`	`/usr`
`/usr/`	`/`
`usr`	`.`
`/`	`/`
`.`	`.`
`..`	`.`

The following code reads a path name, changes directory to the appropriate directory [see chdir(2)], and opens the file.

   char path[100], pathcopy;
   int fd;
   gets (path);
   pathcopy = strdup (path);
   chdir (dirname (pathcopy) );
   fd = open (basename (path), O_RDONLY);